"Alright, I think just ahead is a fork in the road," Ambrose soon said before looking over. "Ah... Well, that's different than I expected."
The fork on the road was shown to have two signs pointing left and right.
"This isn't getting any easier," Garfield said as he checked his map. "The map doesn't show a fork in the path, just this bear." he then put down the map.
Suddenly, there was a bear right in front of them, scaring Garfield and Odie a bit.
"It's only this big on the map." Garfield then said before he and Odie freaked out and held each other.
The bear growled until he smiled and brought out a deck of cards like a magician. "Pick a card, any card." he then told them.
"...you're not gonna eat us?" asked Garfield.
"Not if you pick a card!" The bear responded jovially.
"Oooookay..." Garfield replied as he reached out and picked a card from the deck.
"If it's the Three of Clubs again, I'm gonna jump out of a vortex." Ambrose said to Garfield with a groan.
"What card did you select, sir?" The bear asked Garfield.
"The Seven of Diamonds." Garfield replied with annoyance.
"You, sir, are absolutely correct. Give it up for the bear," The bear beamed before he did a victory dance. "Go, bear! Go, bear! How does he do it? It's a gift."
"Awes-mazing..." Audrey rolled her eyes.
"Okay, okay, one more." The bear said to them.
"Well, we're kind of in a hurry here." Lotta said to the bear.
The bear held his hands out, then stuck out his index fingers... and put his fists together, before putting his index and middle finger up on his left hand.
"...amazing. I've never seen anything like it." LJ responded dryly.
"Fascinating... Now please, if you don't mind..." Lotta tried to tell the bear.
"Just one more. I'm on a roll." The bear then pleaded.
"Junior!" A voice soon called out.
"Yes, Mama?" Junior the bear then responded to the voice.
"Come to dinner and let these nice ladies and gentlemen go on their way." Mama Bear told Junior as she came out from the bushes.
"Aww, Mama..." Junior pouted at her.
"Come on, or your berries will get cold," Mama told him before facing the group. "You kids headed to the magic pond?" she then asked.
"Yeah... How'd you know?" Zelda asked her.
"Everybody who comes here wants to drink the funny water. If you ask me, people rely on that stuff too much," Mama explained and advised. "Being funny should come naturally, like with my Junior here."
"Oh, he's something alright," responded Garfield. "But we can't all be as funny as Junior here. So... could you tell us the quickest way there?"
"Well, I suppose Junior could show you," Mama said to the group before grabbing Junior by his ear suddenly. "And you come home, you hear?" she then told him.
"Okay, Mama." Junior nodded.
"So, Junior, do we go right or left?" Garfield asked him.
"To get to the magic pond tonight, follow your heart, and you'll always be right." Junior advised.
"No, no, no. Don't do this to me, Junior." Garfield shook his head.
"Don't tell us, show us." Chrissy added.
"Our mother says that's a good writing tool." Zofia nodded.
"It's a riddle." Junior told them.
Garfield glowered. "I hate riddles."
"I LOVE riddles!" beamed Junior.
"Junior, dinner!" called Mama.
"Gotta go!" Junior said as he took to his heels. "Bye, guys!" The bear trotted off towards a bush, and dived on in.
The group sweat-dropped at that a bit.
"Well... That certainly was helpful." Zofia snarked.
"Yeah, that was swell," Garfield added. "Come on, guys."
"But which way do we go?" Kimberly wondered.
"You heard what that bear said." Chrissy reminded her as they looked at the left and right signs.
"To get to the magic pond tonight, follow your heart, and you'll always be right," Garfield memorized. "I guess we go right." he then suggested.
Odie wagged his finger in a "no" gesture.
"No?" inquired Zofia.
Odie jumped up onto the sign and did a bunch of gestures that I can't accurately describe in text form, before zipping down.
"...so you're saying since our hearts are on the left sides of our bodies, if we follow our hearts, we must turn left!" Garfield stated. "You really think it's that simple?"
"Bark!" Odie nodded.
"Oookay..." Garfield relented, choosing to turn left.
"I'm not sure if I can fully follow that, but I guess he would know better than us." Zofia shrugged at the others.
"Whatever gets us to the pond faster," Zelda rolled her eyes. "Let's just go."
"Okay, okay, no need to be fussy or impatient." Zofia advised as they followed Garfield to go to the left.
"There's something pretty strange-picious about our new friends." Audrey whispered to Lotta and Dot.
"I don't wanna judge people before I get to know them, I even gave Melvin and Gerald a chance, but you might be right." Lotta whispered back.
"Just don't say anything right now or they'll think we're onto them," Dot advised quietly while checking her clock to see how much time they would have until showtime for Fun Fest. We're all in this together right now."
"Agreed." Audrey and Lotta nodded at that.
"Let's hope this is quicker than that crazy squirrel and his curtains." Garfield said to the others as they walked down the left.
As they left the scene, Junior came out of the bushes and soon clapped for himself in excitement.
Back at the studio, Eli was getting the auditorium ready for Fun Fest.
"Where's Garfield?" asked Charles.
"I'm not sure." responded Arlene.
"Well, I'm making up the list of acts, and-" Charles began to tell her.
"Just schedule him for the end," Arlene quickly suggested. "I'm sure he'll be here in time."
"But he's supposed to be the master of ceremonies. We start in an hour," Charles reminded the female pink cat. "Who are we going to get to host?" he then wondered.
"I could not help but overhear," Ramone smirked as he appeared and tipped his hat. "I would be honored to be master of the ceremony."
"This could cost us a bit." Martin said to Jenny as they watched that.
"Hurry up, guys." Jenny whispered as Little Lulu and her friends were practicing their own routine before showtime.
"If they make it back, that is, especially The Harvey Girls." Rodney smirked as he walked by.
"They're gonna make it back," Martin said firmly. "And that, is a stone-cold fact."
"Pfft... Whatever..." Rodney rolled his eyes and smirked. "Like my mom said to Mr. and Mrs. MacPherson when I moved in to help the baby get to sleep 'Whatever gets ya through the night'."
Martin and Jenny glared at the boy before glancing back at each other.
"Our friends totally got this, right?" Jenny asked.
"Of course they do, Jen!" Martin insisted. "Besides, we'll have plenty of time and Garfield's definitely gonna do better than anyone else in the show, even that Marvin Miller kid who's like a baby human version of Garfield."
"Say, what'd I ever do to you anyway? At least Garfield had more animated potential than I did." Marvin remarked to himself as he sat on the floor with a shrug, speaking in a voice similar to Max Goof before his voice changed.
BACK IN THE FOREST...
Garfield and the others came to a river, topped with a trail of rocks leading across it.
"Okay, looks like we gotta cross and make it to the other end." noted LJ.
"Shouldn't be too difficult." Chrissy remarked.
"Well, let's go." Garfield told the others as he took the lead on the stepping stones.
They jumped from stone to stone until they landed on a few that moved.
"Hey, guys?" Kimberly spoke up.
"Yeah, Kimberly?" Zofia replied.
"Do rocks move?" Kimberly then asked.
"Not usually..." Zofia said nervously. "Uh-oh... It's either crocodiles or alligators... maybe a hippo if we're lucky?"
"Hippos aren't green," LJ responded. "Unless I missed something."
"Okay, this is worse than I thought." Zofia then said nervously.
"Are rocks bouncy?" Garfield soon asked.
"Not usually." Ambrose told the male orange cat.
"Do rocks giggle when you tickle them?" Garfield then asked, making Zofia feel more and more queasy about something bad going to happen.
"Uh-oh." Odie mumbled.
"Okay, clearly we're not on rocks or hippos." Kimberly soon said.
The odd rocks were soon revealed to be blue-painted spots on the backs of two alligators, causing the group to panic and ran away to the other side of the pond on dry land.
"Now we'll never make it to the magic pond and back in time for Fun Fest," Garfield told the others. "We're no match for alligators, guys."
"No one is, except for those Sitting Ducks that were on Carton Network way back in the day." Ambrose remarked.
"You sure about that?" asked a voice, making everyone glance upwards.
They soon saw that they were in the company of a green bird and a red bird.
"There is a way to get by the alligators, you know." The red bird advised them.
"Are you serious?" Chrissy asked.
"Us, serious?" The green bird replied.
The two birds laughed hysterically and zanily in response and stopped. The group blinked at each other before looking back at the two birds curiously.
"Yes, we are very serious." The red bird soon told them.
"Are you guys The Angry Birds?" Kimberly asked as she raised an eyebrow.
"No, you must have us confused for other colorful birds in a different adventure that may or may not be written depending on who wants to claim the story with the main author." The green bird simply stated.
"Leave the fourth wall breaking to my brother or father, please." Zofia snarked in response.
"So, uh, please, tell us... What do we have to do to get around here?" Lotta soon asked the birds.
"Well, not many people know this, but alligators just love to laugh." The green bird informed.
"So make them laugh, and while they're distracted laughing, you can cross the creek." The red bird added.
"But what if they stop laughing before we can make it all the way across?" asked Garfield.
The two birds looked at each other.
"Aren't we the poopyhead?" snorted the green bird.
"What Roger is saying is that a defeatist attitude can be pervasive in its negative impact on the outcome of one's mission," the red bird explained.
"Poopy! Poopy! Poopy-head!" called Roger.
"...and he's also saying you're a poopyhead." The red bird added.
"I get the picture," Garfield replied. "C'mon, Odie. Let's entertain the troops."
"This should be interesting." Ambrose remarked to the others.
"Definitely." Zofia agreed.
Garfield soon faced the two alligators who looked bored in the water before he bowed to them, trying to act like he was on stage. "Thank you, thank you! Hey, guys, it's great to be back here in the mystical forest, but you wouldn't believe what happened to me on the way here. I was mugged. Yeah, this guy walked up to me and says, 'Your money or your nine lives'." he then started to say as he acted like a mugger and used his hand as a gun.
The gators yawned and looked very unimpressed with Garfield's attempt at humor. Not even Tracey, Zelda, and Nicholas were amused by the so-called joke.
"See, because cats have nine lives?" Garfield then explained his joke which was even worse before he tried a different joke. "It's tough being a cat. You wouldn't believe what a six-pack of mice costs these days."
The only sound they could hear was crickets chirping.
"They're not laughing~" Garfield whispered in concern.
"You're not funny~" Roger retorted. "That stuff might work for cats, but in case you haven't noticed, these aren't cats!" he then advised.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Kimberly wondered.
"What Roger is saying is that alligator humor is essentially kinetic in nature." The red bird advised them.
"Yeah! Do stupid stuff." Roger soon urged.
"Translation: they love slapstick." Zofia responded.
"Yup!" LJ nodded. "These fellas are into physical comedy!"
Odie soon gave Garfield the map and stepped out into the center.
"Looks like Odie's gonna give us a demonstration." Kimberly suggested.
"This is taking forever!" Tracey whispered firmly to her sister.
"Just play along, will ya?" Zelda retorted, though she sounded like she barely had enough energy or motivation to sound fully annoyed with her sister. "The sooner we do this, the sooner we get to the pond to save our story."
"Fine, fine." Tracey rolled her eyes.
Audrey glanced at them suspiciously.
"What you lookin' at?" Nicholas asked Audrey as he stood in front of his sisters and put his hands on his hips and narrowed his eyes at the pigtailed girl.
Audrey rolled her eyes at that before she looked at Odie along with everyone else to see what he would do.
Odie soon came over to the alligators and starts doing stupid stuff, like squirming on the ground and bouncing on his head until he hit a rock, causing the alligators to start laughing.
"You see? Play to your audience, even if it means being foolish." The red bird advised Garfield.
"Basically... You gotta..." Zofia said before a spotlight randomly shined down on her as some music began to play. "Make 'em laugh... Make 'em laugh... Don't you know ev'ry one wants to laugh?~" she soon started to sing.
"My dad said, 'Be an actor my son, but be a comical one!'~" LJ joined in. "They'll be standing in lines, for those old honky-tonk monkeyshines!~" he picked up a skull and began wearing a neck ruff. "Oh, you could study Shakespeare and be quite elite, and you could charm the critics and have nothing to eat...~" he threw them aside and did a jig before slipping on a banana peel. "Just slip on a banana peel, the world's at your feet! Make 'em laugh, make 'em laugh, make 'em laugh!~"
"Make 'em roar, make 'em scream, Don't you know all the world wants to laugh?~" Zofia added as she sang with her brother as they acted like they were in a Vaudeville act. "My Grandpa said, 'Go out and tell 'em a joke, But give it plenty of hoke'~"
"Make 'em roar, make 'em scream, Take a fall, butta wall, split a seam~" LJ and Zofia sang together as they landed on top of each other, broke out of the fourth wall, then acted like they ripped their pants like SpongeBob Squarepants.
"You start off by pretending you're a dancer with grace~" LJ sang at first as he imitated a ballerina pose.
"You wiggle 'til they're giggling all over the place~" Zofia added as she wiggled her arms and legs like Squidward Tentacles.
"And then you get a great big custard pie in the face~" LJ and Zofia sang together, taking out two pies before hitting themselves in their own faces in a Babs and Buster Bunny fashion.
The alligators soon laughed even more than that.
"Make 'em laugh, make 'em laugh, make 'em laugh!~" LJ and Zofia then continued together, switching their clothes with each other's until they ripped those clothes off to have their own clothes in the right places then as they passed the stones with Garfield and the others once the alligators were distracted.
"Not bad!" LJ congratulated. "Zo, you were mahvelous!"
"Oh, thank you, thank you," Zofia nodded and beamed. "It just looked like the perfect occasion for it."
"Well, it helped aplenty!" commented Kimberly as she hugged LJ.
"...what the heck was that?" asked Zelda, while Nicholas and Tracey stared with their mouths hanging open.
"A musical number." Zofia simply stated.
"Yeah, no duh, but why?" Tracey asked.
"Well, the emunctoria AKA gators needed to laugh and I thought this song would be a good chance for it and to include LJ in on the fun since we don't have a whole lot in common even as siblings," Zofia explained a bit more. "I'm more into books, older pop culture, and adventure and he's usually trying to get out some laughs along with adventure like our father."
"Yeah, we're fun like that!" LJ grinned as he tipped an imaginary top hat.
The Larsen siblings just glanced at each other as they continued along after passing the alligators.
"I gotta lower my standards." Garfield remarked.
"You could try," Ambrose said before hopping from stone to stone with the others. "Come on, Odie. Let's keep going."
A dizzy Odie then hits a tree and faints, prompting more laughter from the gators.
"Thanks for the help." Garfield told the birds as they all began to hop across the stones.
"Anytime," Roger replied and remarked to his fellow bird. "What'dya know?"
"Yeah! Who'd have thought you could actually make alligators laugh?" The red bird nodded.
"Who'da thunk?" Roger chuckled.
Back at the comic studio, the seats in the auditorium were being filled as Eli got the special effects ready.
Charles watched this from behind the curtain. "We have to start. We can't wait for Garfield or The Harvey Girls anymore." he then told the others with him.
Outside, Arlene could only wait as everyone was entering the studio. She then went inside the building with a sad look on her face.
Back with the others, they continued to travel along as they passed by a sign that said "Upcoming: U.S. Acres Farm".
"Alright, guys, I don't know about you, but I need a minute to sit down." Kimberly said as she sat down on a rock.
"We can't waste time now," Zelda reminded her. "We have a pond and show to get to, or have you forgotten?"
"Let her rest, Blondie," Chrissy glared. "We've all had a long way, we should sit down for a few minutes and maybe get something to eat to keep up our strength."
"Well, the sign we just passed mentioned a farm," LJ replied as he decided to put Kimberly on his shoulders so she could rest. "Maybe we could see if we can rest there?"
"All right, but I can't walk for a while." Kimberly said.
"Don't worry, Kim, I gotcha." LJ soothed her.
They soon saw the sign again and decided to follow it over to a nearby farm with plenty of animals and commotion going on. The animals appeared to be a pig, a rooster, a duck with an inner tube, an egg with legs sticking out, and a couple of sheep (one of which had a bow in her head).
"It's definitely lively, that's for sure." commented Garfield as he and the others approached the farm's dirt road leading to the barn and farmhouse.
The pig appeared to have a clipboard as he was checking over some things on his checklist and the first thing on the checklist was to make a checklist.
"Excuse me? Do you mind if we stay here for a minute?" Kimberly piped up as LJ carried her over to the pig who seemed to be in charge around here.
"Depends on who's asking," The pig replied before he turned around and looked wide-eyed. "Whoa... I've never seen you guys before." he then remarked.
"That's funny, I was just gonna say I feel like I've seen you somewhere before." Garfield replied to the pig.
"How very curious." commented Zofia.
"I suppose so," The pig shrugged. "Anyway, I'm Orson and this is my farm!" he then announced.
"Your farm?" The group asked curiously.
"Well, yeah, more or less," Orson shrugged bashfully in response. "But of course, you can stay here a minute while I make sure we have another perfect farm day here in U.S. Acres."
"Okay," LJ replied. "You got anything to eat around here? My buds and I are a bit exhausted from our trek."
"Just don't give 'em eggs!" The walking and talking egg cried out. "I'm too sensitive to come outta my shell, ya know."
"Don't worry, Sheldon, you'll be just fine," Orson told him before gesturing the group over to a cozy looking barn. "We should have something good to eat for you around here."
"I hope they don't give us bugs or junk or disgusting crap like that." Tracey complained since they were visiting a bunch of barnyard animals.
"How does pizza sound? Another farm of animals recommended it to us since barnyard animals lead a double life humans don't know about." Orson suggested and smirked suavely.
"Sure, pizza sounds good." LJ nodded.
"What he said." Chrissy chimed in.
"Pizza with barnyard animals?" Tracey asked in disbelief.
"Yeah! Doesn't it sound so cool?" Audrey grinned.
"Uh... Probably not the word I would use." Tracey replied.
"I'm more of a lasagna man myself, but if that's all you got." Garfield shrugged in response.
Soon, they met in the barn and shared some pizza together to replenish their strength.
"You sure we haven't met before? You seem familiar." Garfield said to Orson.
"Not sure what you could be talking about, buddy," Orson shrugged innocently before winking at the fourth wall. "Anyway, I wish you guys luck at that Fun Fest thing."
"Luck will have nothing to do with it after we find that pond." Garfield reassured the pig confidently.
"Pizza does sound cool." Audrey mumbled as she kicked her feet around while waiting.
Soon, the two sheep came by and brought over several pizza boxes for their guests.
"Thank you for the pizza!" Kimberly and Lotta beamed.
"Yeah, pizza's nice." Zelda added.
"So... Do you guys know Little Bo Peep?" Tracey smirked at the two sheep. "Or maybe Mary needs one of you little lambs back home."
"Watch it, sister," Lanolin glared at her. "I may look cute and cuddly but you don't wanna mess with me."
"She means it, dudette," Bo responded. "She's beaten the snot outta folks for less."
Lanolin grinned and nodded at that.
"I'm not like that, am I?" Chrissy whispered to the others.
"Chrissy, you're a great person and we all know it," Kimberly reminded the girl. "Especially when it comes to adventures with us."
"Also, maybe you guys wanna come to Fun Fest with us?" Zofia suggested to Orson and his friends. "It might be fun."
"That sounds nice and all, guys, but we might just hang out here," Orson replied and nodded. "We just wanna help out those who need it and not only help ourselves."
"Speak for yourself on that last part." Lanolin muttered to herself.
"Well, thanks for the pizza anyway." said LJ.
"No problem!" Orson replied. "This time together was nice, even if it was short."
"You can come back anytime," Wade added before smiling nervously. "Ya know, of course if you ask first."
Tracey and Zelda rolled their eyes slightly, feeling annoyed with the barnyard animals.
"We'll be sure to do that." Kimberly responded as she helped clean up with the others and disposed of the empty pizza boxes in the recycling bin.
"You sure you don't wanna come along with us?" Chrissy asked the barnyard animals.
"Thank you kindly, but we're gonna hang out around here," Sheldon replied. "Though something tells me that this won't be the last time we'll ever see each other."
"So we'll see you again?" Kimberly asked hopefully.
"Maybe someday," Sheldon advised. "Who knows what the future will bring as time goes by?"
"Who knows, indeed," replied Orson. "I'd better go check on Booker. He's probably off trying to catch those worms again."
"A bird friend of yours?" Kimberly guessed.
Wade glanced at her for that.
"I mean... Another bird friend of yours?" Kimberly then asked with a sheepish smile.
"He's Sheldon's brother." Orson responded.
"Oh... I knew that..." Kimberly nodded.
"Sure you did." Tracey snarked.
Kimberly firmly frowned at Tracey who just glared at her.
"Thanks again, Orson. We'll be in touch," Garfield replied as he picked up the map again. "Now if you'll excuse us, we have a pond to see."
"Thank you for having us though." Dot added.
"Anytime, fellas, anytime." Orson nodded and waved them off.
And so, with their little rest stop concluded, our group continued onwards.
"Well, that was a nice temporary visit." Kimberly smiled.
"It sure was, but now let's get back to work." Zofia nodded.
"What a bunch of nice kids." Orson smiled as he went back to the barnyard with his friends.
The main group continued to wander out on their journey, passing by various critters from the comic strip world, even including Rat, Pig, Zebra, and the Crocodiles who once babysit the MacPherson kids in a crossover with Baby Blues and Pearls Before Swine.
Eventually, after a little while longer of more walking, the group stopped and gasped as they saw a certain pond in the distance.
"It really exists, guys... The magic pond filled with funny water!" Garfield told the others around him. "Let's do this!"
"See?" asked LJ. "We're gonna make it after all!"
"Yeah!" Zofia beamed as she took out a random beret and tossed it in the air before ending up in a freeze frame temporarily.
Nicholas, Tracey, and Zelda just looked at each other.
"Well, hurry up! Let's go to that pond already." Tracey demanded impatiently.
"Okay. Okay. We're going. We're going," Ambrose rolled his eyes. "Boy, I gotta tell you, that Tracey girl sounds like a perfectly good waste of a decent voice talent." he then mumbled to his friends.
A random trivia note soon appeared from PerkyGoth14 for those who didn't know: Tracey was voiced by Annick Obonsawin who did voicework for characters such as Inez from Cyberchase, Sierra from Total Drama, or Skunk from Franklin the Turtle.
"Ohhhh!" LJ commented. "Also, when did you get here, Ambrose?"
"Uh, I've been here ever since you guys were told about your adventure and I could come along too?" Ambrose reminded him. "Especially since Marie Kanker's pretty busy right now so I can't hang out with her for a while."
"Oh. Sorry," LJ responded. "I guess we didn't notice cuz you didn't get any lines for a while."
"It's okay, I didn't have much to say," Ambrose shrugged. "Anyway, shall we keep going?"
"That's a great idea, Ambrose." Kimberly nodded.
Tracey and Zelda grinned darkly at each other since they were so close to the magic pond.
"Come on, guys!" Garfield called out as he ran for the pond only to trip on a rope that pulled a lever that then caused a random gate to appear as well as a post and several stop signs.
"Of course it just got difficult for no reason." Zofia groaned, sounding almost like her mother.
"Makes sense to me." LJ shrugged.
Garfield knocked on the signpost. "Hel-loooo! Anybody home?" he asked.
Just then, a short man with a big bushy mustache came out of the toll booth. "Hold your horses!" he told the cat.
"Um... Hi?" Zofia blinked at the short man.
"State your business." The man demanded.
"I came to drink the funny water." Garfield simply stated.
"Who doesn't?" The man replied. "And why do you want to drink the funny water?" he then asked.
"Because I'm not funny anymore." Garfield said.
"I'll be the judge of that," The man said. "Tell me a joke."
Garfield paused until he came up with a random joke. "How many rabbits does it take to change a light bulb?"
"One! If he hops to it," The man guessed before asking another question. "You do impressions?"
"We don't have time for this, we gotta go right now!" Zelda said, trying to lunge out over the post to get to the pond already.
"Ah, nope!" The toll booth man replied as he activated an electric bug zapper/fly swatter that smacked Zelda backwards while zapping her.
Zelda twitched and groaned once she ended up on the ground.
"Okay, so that's not the way to go..." Kimberly remarked. "Good to know."
"Now as I was saying, does anyone do impressions?" The man then demanded.
"Of course. Any requests?" Garfield replied.
"Do a cat." The man then told him.
"Better not overdo it like when Danny the Song and Dance Cat was first in Hollywood during that one movie filming," Chrissy whispered. "The others told me that cat overdid it even though that was the end of Darla Dimple's movie career as a child."
Garfield scoffed. "...meow."
"I'm not convinced." The man replied.
"Are we through?" Garfield inquired.
"You're not funny, alright." The man stated.
"Aw, come on, give Garfield a break," Audrey said. "He's been having a rough patch lately."
"A piece of advice." The man began to say.
"What's that?" Zelda asked once she came to.
"Drink a lot of funny water. Especially you three." The man advised before pointing and laughing at Tracey, Zelda, and Nicholas as the Larsen siblings then narrowed their eyes at him in annoyance.
Ambrose blinked as he took out his phone and got a text. "It's Martin and Jenny," he then said before looking at Audrey, Dot, and Lotta. "The Baby Blues crew just did a song number with 'It's All Been Done' by The Barenaked Ladies and Little Lulu remastered her theme song from her 1940s cartoon, I better get you guys back to the studio."
"They may have to drain the pond for ya!" The man exclaimed, guffawing as he went back into his toll booth.
"...aren't you gonna raise the gate?" asked Garfield.
"Do I look like Arnold Schwarzenegger?" retorted the toll man. "Go under!"
Chrissy sighed as she looked at her hands. "Sorry, freshly manicured nails, but duty calls." she then said once it looked like they had to crawl under the gate.
Garfield and the group soon popped up on the other side.
"Break a leg, Harvey Girls!" Kimberly called out to Audrey, Dot, and Lotta. "You got this!"
"We'll never forget you trying to motivate us!" Dot called back.
Ambrose then took out a magic wand to send the Harvey Girls back to the comic studio before they would miss their big chance. And in a twirl of the wand, Dot, Lotta, and Audrey were suddenly gone!
"I really hope the audience likes their song," Kimberly said with a hopeful smile at LJ and Chrissy. "I know I sure do."
"Hey, if there's one thing I know, it's a good song," Chrissy responded. "But I'd be pretty happy to see how it all wraps up in the long run!"
"Tell me about it," Kimberly nodded. "Now Garfield, you have a pond to see." she then told the male cat.
"Sure you can... After we get our chance." Zelda smirked as she came to shove Garfield out of the way.