A/N: Please bear with me; this chapter and the next will have a lot of explaining about characters' feelings. I decided to expand on some of their thoughts, since many of them were sort of left out in the movie. Don't worry, many exciting things are coming!

With only one remaining week of school and two weeks till the start of the (still unannounced) tour, everyone on the set of the Corny Collins Show was getting visibly antsy.

Especially Amber.

Saturday night had been a disaster. She had been miserably cold in the little garment her mother had stuffed her into, and hadn't exactly enjoyed watching Tracy shove her tongue down Link's throat, OR sitting in the back with that whale in the passenger seat.

Did Amber still love Link?

She wasn't sure if she ever had, really. What she had loved was the attention they got; the reputation they had. But had she loved Link, as a person? Well, to be honest… no.

It wasn't like she'd ever actually thought about it before, but now that she did, it made it easier to accept the fact that she didn't have him anymore. Deep down, she could understand why Link had stopped calling her; stopped telling her movie times; stopped grabbing her in the hallway for a kiss. And she guessed that all along what they had felt for each other hadn't been love at all.

This fact was hard to face – Amber and Link had been going steady for quite a while. Things had seemed perfect, even on the show. It just figured that Link's new girlfriend had taken that away, too.

After all this thinking, Amber felt slightly tired. She laid back on her bed.

Tomorrow was Monday. She would figure things out then. There were many places to go – school, the studio, the place where her mom worked – and many places to find a new boyfriend.

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Penny and Seaweed were driving around very late Saturday night after the movie had gotten out. They were approaching Penny's neighborhood when a series of loud pops rang out.

Gunfire.

As calmly as he could, Seaweed turned the car around and began driving back to his neighborhood.

"Seaweed, what was that?" Penny whimpered.

"Don't worry, baby," Seaweed whispered, putting his finger to her lips. "Most of the time, it's just some kids out shootin' cans. But to be safe, we're gonna take a little detour." He smiled, and Penny giggled when his white teeth appeared in the hidden darkness of his face.

"Can I stay the night? Can I really?" Penny asked, talking mostly to herself. "My mother will shoot me…"

"Better than having them do it," Seaweed decided, looking back towards the origin of the popping sounds. He parked the car in front of his house and led Penny in. "C'mon in, sugar."

He pulled Penny into the recording studio that adjoined his house, and showed her to his mom, who was up late writing something – probably for the show.

"Boy, you're in trouble now," Maybelle sighed. "Explain yourself."

Seaweed did so.

"Well, I guess she'd better stay then," Maybelle said, happy to have a visitor (especially Penny, who she liked very much).

"Oh, thanks, Maybelle," Penny said.

"You're welcome, baby," Maybelle replied, giving her a hug to reassure Penny of her feelings. "Seaweed will take you and Lil' Inez to school tomorrow, but for now, you can crash in my bed. I have some thinking to do, and I'll be up for a while, I think."

Seaweed snuck into Inez's room to get a long nightgown for Penny.

"'Night, sugar," Seaweed said, giving her a kiss as she settled into his mother's bed. "Sleep tight."

Penny smiled, and fell into the best sleep she'd had in a long time.