There were many foodstuffs piled on the table in big platters, cheese and crackers and cookies and other typical teenage dance fodder. Norman grabbed a couple of cups and quickly ladled himself and Dipper a couple of drinks before turning to go back to his boyfriend when a faint sound halted him in his tracks. A sound that was nearly buried completely under the god-awful noise of "Who Let the Dogs Out" that was blasting over the speakers.

Had it not been for the telltale green shine Norman caught out the corner of his eye as he turned around to investigate, he might have ignored it and continued on his merry way. Instead he saw a young girl, a ghost that looked to have been about his age, sitting against the wall by the bathrooms, crying into her hands.

By her garish dress with its gigantically puffed up sleeves (only matched by her massive hairstyle) and the style of make up that was visible still on her face, Norman guessed that she must have died in the 1980's, and Norman thought her appearance very vaporwave, but only because he had heard Mabel use that word a few days before and he only vaguely understood what it meant.

The only other distinguishing feature he could make out was the open wound that ran down the girl's head from the top of the skull to over her right eye.

Sympathy for the girl filled the medium's heart, and he set aside his drinks in favor of approaching her. Once he was standing in front of her, he first cleared his throat in the hopes of getting her attention, but she remained buried in her arms.

"Um, e-excuse me," he said, and finally she looked up, a shocked expression on her face at being acknowledged for the first time since she died. "I was just wondering if you were okay."

"You can see me?"

"I have… a gift." He slid down to sit next to her. "I'm Norman, by the way."

"Janet," the ghost girl replied.

"What's wrong?"

"Oh, nothing in particular. This night just always makes me sad I guess."

"Why?"

She sighed. "This was the night I died. Back in '85."

After kicking himself for instinctively hearing the chorus of Bowling For Soup's "1985" in his head after she said that, he pressed on. He had long ago gotten used to morbid tales of death from the mouths of the ghosts he interacted with, but still with sincere sympathy he said, "Oh. I'm so sorry. Can I ask what happened?"

"It's so stupid, it's not even interesting at all. I came to this dance with my date, a boy named George. I was so happy. I was never all that popular, but I was determined to make it the best night of my life. But as soon as I came in through those doors I tripped on this freaking dress, busted up my head. So unfair, so horribly unfair and random and just stupid how a life can end just like that."

"I've seen a lot of worse ways to go. What do you think is keeping you here?"

"Honestly, dumb as it is? I just feel so cheated. That was supposed to be the best night of my life, and it was ripped from my hands. Like I said, unfair." She sunk back down, fresh tears of ectoplasm dripping onto the floor, and Norman's heart sank. After a moment of considering what she said about why she was still clinging to the mortal plain, he came up with an idea that would hopefully satisfy her and help her move on.

"How about I help make this your special night?" He said, flashing her a crooked smile. "I'd love to save you a dance. Would that help?"

"Doubt it. I've tried to make the most of this new existence, tried to recapture the magic I thought would be there on that night. Dancing among the living every year, pretending to eat cheap cookies. I even used to stand between people when they were getting their pictures taken so I could be part of their memories in some small way. But it never helped. As a ghost I can't feel anything. I'm so disconnected from everything and it sucks. Oh how I long to feel the touch of another's arm around my waist, the brush of a hand upon my cheek. 'I am human and I want to be loved!' That's a Smiths lyric. You like the Smiths? They really speak to me. They're still together, right?"

"Uh, sure," he lied. "Look, there has to be some way I can help you."

"I don't think so," she said, as though resigned to her fate. Then a look crossed her face, one that said some spark of inspiration had struck her. "Unless…"

"Unless what?

"Are you here with somebody?"

"Yeah," he said, smiling sweetly. "My boyfriend. Dipper."

"What, boyfriend? You're gay?"

"That's not a problem for you, right?" Just what he needed. A homophobic ghost.

"I'll make do with what I have. Listen, I have an idea that maybe will really creep you out but it's all I can think of to end this awful existence I lead. Are you willing to hear it?"

Though something told him he wouldn't like where this was going, still he put on an encouraging smile and nodded for her to go on.

"Yeah, so I know it's probably a big shock and all," Dipper said, puffing his chest out with pride, "but me and Norman are kinda going out."

"Oh wow really?" Pacifica Northwest said sarcastically, rolling her eyes. "I never would have guessed. Seriously, I'm pretty sure the whole town already knew about you two losers." That got a chuckle out of Mabel, but Dipper was too busy being struck with the sudden realization that Norman had been getting drinks for an awfully long time to be embarrassed. Dipper had been so engrossed catching up with Pacifica before to notice, but now he was looking around trying to spot his boyfriend. Sure enough, he saw Norman with his back against the wall, chatting to thin air. Dipper had long ago learned that type of behavior could only mean that ghostly shenanigans were afoot. The kind of ghostly shenanigans he was in no mood to deal with right now.

"Uh, excuse me, I think I need to go check on something. Be right back."

Dipper left the two girls alone, and as soon as he was out of earshot Pacifica turned to Mabel and said, "So, you gonna dance with me or what?"

"Yeah!" came Mabel's enthusiastic response.

The medium and the ghost cut their conversation short as soon as they spotted Dipper rushing towards them. "Hey Norman. Who's your new friend?" Dipper asked, gesturing to the empty space beside him.

"Oh, hey Dip, I was just gonna come get you. Janet, this is Dipper, Dipper, this is Janet."

Though of course he couldn't see her, Dipper still looked where he guessed her eyes must have been and politely said, "Um, nice to meet you Janet." Turning his attention back to the person he could actually hold a conversation with, he asked, "What have you guys been talking about? You ready to go hit the dance floor?"

"Well…" Norman began, rubbing his neck nervously. "Maybe not quite in the way you're thinking."

Already Dipper realized that things weren't going to go well for him. "Oh no. What do you mean?"

"Well, it's a little complicated, but basically, and don't get mad but…" He searched a moment for a delicate way to put it, but must have decided that it was better just to be blunt because then he blurted out "Janet kind of wants to possess your body and use it to dance with me."

"What!?"

Norman was quick to try calming him down. "Just for a little while, I promise. She died before she could go on her date here thirty years ago, so she just wants to experience it in a real body."

"Uh-uh, no way. I've tried the whole 'being possessed' thing before and I wasn't a fan. I felt like how Bruce Wayne felt at the bottom of that pit in The Dark Knight Rises."

"First of all, stop referencing that movie. It was a six out of ten at best. Secondly, at the first sign of any problems I promise I'll exorcize her from you. I've gotten pretty good at it."

"Well why does it have to be me? There are hundreds of other people she could choose from in this room."

"She doesn't want to do this without somebody being okay with it. And besides, she says she wants to spend this night with me, since I'm the first person she's connected with since she died."

"Oh, so what, she's your girlfriend now?"

As calm as Noman had been dealing with Dipper's understandable frustration the rest of their conversation, that little statement really annoyed him. "No, Dipper, that's not what this is about and you know it. Just… trust me on this." He grabbed Dipper's hands tenderly. "I know you've been looking forward to this night and that you're probably disappointed, but nothing bad is going to happen to you. I have to try to help her. I'm the only person who can, okay?" Norman looked compassionately into his boyfriend's eyes and smiled gently and, as was usually the case whenever Norman looked at him like that, Dipper found himself melting in his warm gaze.

He sighed sadly, but seemed to accept the task given to him. "…Alright. I trust you." Turning again to the empty space beside Norman again, Dipper said, "Janet, go ahead whenever you're ready. Try not to break anything."

Janet, who had been content to just listen to the two talk this whole time, suddenly broke into a big excited grin and leapt into Dipper's body. Though his eyes glowed green momentarily and a phantom trail of mist escaped his mouth, in an instant Dipper's face reverted to normal and J took to admiring her new form, laughing happy giggles as she held Dipper's hands in front of her eyes.

"Oh my god oh my god ohmygodohmygod! This is incredible!"

"Glad you like it. So-" he was about to ask for a dance when all of a sudden she leapt in front of the snack table and began gorging herself on everything in front of her. Norman only observed in a mixture of both disgust and a vague sense of being impressed at how insatiable a young dead girl's hunger could be. When he felt his boyfriend's stomach had been filled enough (he didn't want the kid to have a horrible stomachache when control of his body returned to him), he touched her shoulder to gain her attention. To his surprise and mortification she grabbed his hand and started rubbing it affectionately across her new face, soaking in the first physical contact she had felt since her death.

"Um, I was just wondering if you've had enough to eat."

"Sorry," she said, crumbs flying from Dipper's mouth. "I haven't eaten in thirty years. Of course I'm gonna be hungry."

"It's okay, I understand. You, uh, wanna keep eating for a while, or do you wanna dance?"

"No no, let's dance now! Come on!" Hand still clutching Norman's, she pulled him with unnecessary violence to the dance floor, where other kids were already crowded.

Immediately Janet launched into a series of pretty impressive moves from the 80's, moonwalking and the sprinkler and the like. For a while she and Norman danced to standard age-appropriate music, as was the norm for functions such as these. Typical fare like "Lady Marmalade," "Sk8er Boi," and "Killing in the Name of." Janet, having years of observation and practice as a ghost under her belt, was a surprisingly good dancer and easily outshined Norman with his uncoordinated moves.

Mabel, having not been filled in on the fact that her brother wasn't really her brother on this night, broke away from dancing with Pacifica under the guise of having "important work to do." After collecting a few snapshots of what she assumed were joyous moments between her brother and his boyfriend, she returned to grooving.

He had hoped all she would've needed to move on would be to dance to a few mediocre early 2000's pop songs; the kinds Dipper would no doubt have appreciated. Then he could salvage his date and enjoy the rest of the night as was planned. Unfortunately, such was not the case.

An hour or so of flailing limbs later and Norman was getting exhausted, though Janet's spirit seemed to imbue Dipper's body with limitless stamina since she was still dancing the robot with reckless abandon even as Norman was nearly ready to collapse. As if sensing his tiredness, Janet grabbed him again by the hand and shouted over the music "I'm bored of dancing, let's go do something else." He weakly smiled and nodded and was led enthusiastically to the professional photographer hired for the night's event.

Mabel sure isn't going to be happy about this, Norman thought to himself as Janet selected for them a backdrop of puffy clouds, and sure enough Mabel was there in an instant arguing with the professional and yelling at him that it was her job and her job alone to take photographs of her brother and his boyfriend. After numerous threats of violence and legal penalties, she contented herself with snapping cheap digital pictures of the "happy couple" while the photographer did the same with his equipment. Janet smiled a gigantic grin as she wrapped her arms around Norman's shoulders and stood close to him in a pose for the flashing cameras.

Dutifully, Norman escorted her around the entire night, as she demanded to experience all that the dance had to offer. He fed her chocolate fondue, took her for a walk outside on the grounds (she having not been able to leave the building itself in all her time as a ghost), and even sang a duet version of "Iris" by the Goo Goo Dolls with her at the karaoke machine when it was brought out. It was horrible. Mabel was there at each notable moment.

Norman put up a happy façade, always smiling and laughing with the girl even though in his heart he couldn't help but be sad that Dipper couldn't experience the date with him. He had told himself before that if nothing else he would at least be able to trick himself into thinking that the person he was spending the night with was truly his boyfriend, but every time he looked into the eyes he saw not Dipper's soul but someone else entirely.

And so the night passed by…