Chapter 5:

10:25 PM

Clemson stood up on his chair and cleared his throat.

"Hi there. I'm Clemson," he said to the Hoboken zoosters and Dr. Blowhole.

"Hi, Clemson," everyone said back to him.

"Tell us why you hate Skipper," Blowhole said.

"Well," Clemson explained, "actually, I don't like King Julien. He's a fake... a phony. He doesn't deserve to be king. I once tried to prove that he wasn't the real heir to the throne back in Madagascar, but Skipper and his army stopped me from going any farther on the topic.

"I don't know what it is, but Julien always seems to have the upper hand whenever I try to challenge him for the throne, and it gets on my nerves!"

"Wait a minute," Dr. Blowhole butted in, lifting a flipper in question, "This meeting was supposed to be us telling why we hate Skipper, not Julien. Well... that was a great idea you had, Clemson. We'll do a King Julien Awareness night next week."

"No, no," Clemson explained, "I'm telling you all that I hate Skipper, only because he's always defending Julien like he was... UNTOUCHABLE. That's what gets on my nerves!"

"Oh! Okay!" everyone now understood.

"And that's all I have to say about Skipper," Clemson said finally, "only that he's a jerk. A jerky bodyguard for that stupid lemur king."

After saying that, his friends applauded him.

"Thank you for sharing your story, Clemson," Dr. Blowhole said, "now that all of you have gone to tell your stories, I will now tell you mine, since my name is the only one left in the hat seemingly. But I'll just take my name out of the hat anyway."

So Blowhole reached into the hat to grab his name out. But when he pulled out the piece of paper, something was added to it. Next to his name was some words, which made the paper read: "Dr. Blowhole Is A Nerd!"

"What?!" Blowhole was outraged.

"What is it?" Rhonda asked.

"What's wrong?" Savio inquired.

"Someone wrote that I am a nerd!" Blowhole yelled. "I'm not a nerd! Whoever did this must come forward now! I mean it!"

None of the Hoboken zoosters stepped forward.

"Anyone?" Dr. Blowhole growled, now eyeing them suspiciously.

"What if it was Clemson?" Rhonda piped up, pointing at him with suspicion. "He was butting into some of our stories at the time."

"Don't look at me, guys!" Clemson argued defensively. "What if it was Rhonda? I mean, she was the one that suggested that we pull our names out of the hat, right? Or was it someone else that suggested that? Who was it that suggested that?"

"Don't go spinning the blame on me, pal!" Rhonda came over to Clemson threateningly.

"Alright, enough!" Dr. Blowhole ordered. "We'll get to the bottom of this!"

"My thoughts exactly, Blowhole!" a voice shouted from inside the hat. This scared everyone in the gift shop, including Blowhole himself.

"Did that hat just speak?" Savio wondered.

"That's silly!" Rhonda assured him nervously. "Hats can't talk... unless of course, it's magic!"

"This hat isn't magic," Dr. Blowhole said, now looking inside the hat... where he met a slap to the face. And out popped...

"SKIPPER!" everyone shouted with shock.