A\N: Sorry if anything is cheesy, I´m not so good at romance. xP Plus thanks for all the kind reviews. xDD
The next day was practice, practice, practice. Not only in the script, though. And those who didn´t get out of bed were flung out of it. Skipper and Marlene practiced their parts, they would´ve enjoyed it if AT hadn´t kept on shouting out corrections and moving them around.
Since none of the animals knew basketball, cheerleading or chemistry, (all they were expected was to stand around and eat all day and not to bite the visitors) they had to get lectured on that too, using a lot of books and the internet. There weren´t too many animal coaches in NYC, so that would have to do.
Finally the day was over and the exhausted animals were allowed to go back to their habitat.
Marlene was in the middle of rearranging her bed when Skipper popped up behind her.
"Hey Marle-" He must´ve startled her bad.
The girl yelped and whirled around, her pillow slamming into Skipper´s face. The penguin ended up on the floor, rubbing his beak.
"Nice to see you too." He said.
"Skipper! I´m sorry, I didn´t- you could´ve just knocked!" Marlene told him, helping him up.
"So…are you doing anything this evening?" The leader asked shyly, rubbing his flipper.
"No…why?" The otter grew curious.
"I…uh, was wondering if you would like to…practice some of the songs with me? I mean, we could do it here. Best of all, AT couldn´t interrupt us."
Marlene didn´t have to think twice. "That sounds great!"
It would be just Skipper and her, alone…no one could tell them to change scenes, or put them on a five minute break.
Skipper was well aware his face was fevering, and he hoped that it didn´t show. He was never really good at romantic stuff.
At least that's what he always thought. Okay, maybe his heart was hammering so hard, he thought it would skid to a stop for just asking Marlene, but when he was in a romantic scene (and he didn´t mean at practice), it wasn´t that bad.
They choose "What I´ve been looking for", the slower version. AT had given the animals the soundtrack from the musical, so they can practice at their habitats or something. Marlene put it into her CD player and turned it on.
For being the guy, Skipper sure was nervous. Marlene almost had to make the first move, but the penguin gathered himself and got in position. If his partner was just as tense, she didn´t show it.
Soon, in the flow of the music and the soft smell of sea that Marlene´s habitat had, Skipper felt himself relaxing and his clumsy steps changed to firm and smooth. The leader never thought much of dancing, but now, he didn´t want the song to end.
Marlene had never seen something like this come from the penguin leader. Most of the time he was uptight and paranoid. She felt a bit excited, getting to see a different side from his, a side that his team probably had never seen.
Neither one of them cared when the song ended and the next one came on. Skipper just smirked and led the way for the next song. They danced the appropriate dances to all the songs´ genres.
Finally they came to a halt. The player made a small noise to notice that the CD was done playing. The two didn´t notice.
Nobody spoke a word. The only noise that filled the silence was their breathing. Skipper dared to look up. Marlene was gazing at him, her eyes shining. It almost looked like she was going to lean in and kiss him, but then she pulled away and blushed.
"Well, that was-"
"Amazing." Skipper blurted, then grinned. Marlene too.
"If you ever want to do that again…" The otter started. "Just tell me." Skipper stepped closer, but he didn´t dare to kiss her. He was afraid it might be too forward or soon. It might be awkward and their friendship could be ruined.
So he hesitated, but then hugged her.
"Goodnight…doll face." The girl chuckled and hugged him back.
"Goodnight."
Skipper pulled away, and Marlene could feel the warmth around her subside.
"Well, gotta get going. Practice tomorrow." He rolled his eyes and Marlene laughed.
"What do you think of the idea when a random bomb shows up and-"
"Skipper!"
"Okay, okay. Just an idea."
He smirked, then saluted her and slid out. The other walked over to the player and turned it off. She could feel phantom flippers around her. Still smiling, the otter climbed into bed and fell asleep. Who knows, maybe she dreamt of Skipper.
"Good morning everybody!" AT greeted the half asleep animals.
"Come on! We have an exciting day ahead of us!" Even that didn´t seem to work. The director took out a remote control and pushed a button.
Suddenly, a gun went off. Everyone jumped and Skipper yelled, "Everyone! We´re being attacked!" "Yeah, by a remote control!" AT rolled her eyes, then led the now awake animals out.
"Pop it! Come on team, faster! Focus! Get your head in the game! Come on!" Maurice shouted out into the gym. He paced to and forth the players, who were passing a basket ball to each other. It went pretty great, even thought Bada was passing to Mort and Rico to Bing. Mort wasn´t even flung across the gym. Right when Mort was about to pass the ball to the next player, Maurice caught it and turned to him.
"You´ve seen Troy?" he asked the mouse lemur. Mort flinched under his stern gaze.
"No, I think the wooden horse got him." He said quietly.
Maurice gave him the ball back and continued with the practice. "And again! Let´s go!"
After the team was done with the drills, Skipper slid in. Rico gave him a ´you-are-so-dead´ look and passed him the ball.
Skipper turned to the coach. "I´m, uh, going to stay here for a while."
Maurice nodded. "Well, since you missed practice, I think your team deserves a little effort for you today." He walked out and closed the door.
The penguin began shooting hoops when a voice interrupted him.
"Wow! So this is your real stage."
Skipper turned to see Marlene walking up to him.
"Yeah. I guess you can call it that. Or just a smelly gym."
The otter took the ball from his flippers and shot it, achieving a nice two points.
"Nice! Don´t tell me you're good at hoops too." Skipper commented. The other caught the ball bouncing back at them and faced him, played serious on her face.
"You know I once scored 41 points at a league championship game."
The penguin probably didn´t notice the joke, since her stared at her. "No way."
Marlene nodded, holding down a laugh.
"Yeah and that same day I invented the space shuttle and microwave popcorn."
"Microwave popcorn…right, very funny." Skipper took the ball from her paws as the other laughed.
"I´ve been rehearsing with Kelsi." Gabriella noted, getting them back to the singing topic.
"Me too." Skipper bounced the ball a couple of times. "And by the way, I missed basket ball practice. So if I get kicked out of the time, it should be on your conscious."
"Hey I wasn´t the one who told you-" Marlene started indignantly, but then Skipper turned to her with a smile of his own.
"Gabriella, chill."
She play-glared at him and opened her mouth to say something, then grabbed his ball and held it out of his reach.
Skipper took a step toward her, trying to get his ball back. "Hey, that´s travelling. No, that´s really bad travelling!"
He lunged forward and Marlene sidestepped. Skipper turned and grabbed her from behind, lifting her off the ground, both laughing.
"Miss!" A stern voice sounded from behind them. The two looked back to see Maurice coming toward them, and he didn´t look exactly happy. "I´m sorry, but this is a closed practice."
Skipper placed the otter back on the ground. "Dad, come on, practice is over."
"Until the last player leaves the gym. Team rules." Maurice insisted, giving his son a firm look.
Marlene apologized, giving Skipper the ball back. The penguin realized that his father and Marlene had never met. He stepped back and introduced Maurice to the girl beside him.
"Dad, I´d like you to meet Gabriella Montez."
The coach raised an eyebrow, not looking very impressed. "Oh your detentions buddy." Awkward silence followed, Skipper giving the lemur indicting look.
Marlene twisted her fingers together uncomfortably, deciding it was better if she left now.
"I´ll see you later Troy…uhm, nice meeting you, Coach Bolton."
"You as well, Ms Montez." Maurice told her and the otter left.
As soon as they were alone, Skipper confronted his father. "Dad, detention was my fault, not hers."
"You haven´t missed practice in three years. That girl shows up-" Maurice started, but was cut off by his irritated son.
"´That girl´ is named Gabriella. She´s very nice."
"Helping you miss practice doesn´t make her seem very nice! Not in my book or your team´s."
"Dad she´s not a problem! She´s just a girl!" Skipper said, his voice rising in frustration.
"But you´re not just a guy Troy!" Maurice shot back. He regained his composure. "You´re the team leader."
Skipper´s grip tightened on the ball. His father continues.
"What you do affects not only this team, but the entire school. And without you completely focused, we´re not going to win next week. Those championship games don´t come along all the time. They´re something special."
"Yeah, but a lot of things are special dad!" Skipper said.
Maurice gave him a small smile. "But you´re a playmaker. Not a singer, right?" He said, almost sounding like he was trying to convince himself.
His son turned to him defiantly. "Did you ever think maybe I could be both?"
Skipper didn´t wait for an answer, but threw the ball down and walked out. As he left, he didn´t notice the Wildcats behind him, who had been listening to the conversation.
"What?" Bada asked, scratching his hairy chest.
"Come on." Rico beckoned them.
"No, really, what happened?" Bada asked. He looked at the others, who all shrugged.
"Good, okay, we need a volunteer to be the librarian." AT called out. Lulu raised her paw. "Lulu? Good, okay, you and Skipper and Rico come with me." Skipper and Rico slid behind him, while Roger gave Lulu an old lady´s wig and a flower dress.
"Wat spell haz dis elevator-IQ temptess girl cass that suddely makes yu wanna be in a musikal? (What spell has this elevated-IQ temptress girl cast that suddenly makes you want to be in a musical?)" Rico asked his best friend, who was currently browsing through the library.
Skipper looked just as annoyed as his friend. "Look, I just did it. Who cares?" He continued waddling.
"´Who cares´? Ho´ abou´ yur mossed loyal bessed frien? (How about your most loyal best friend?)"
Lulu suddenly appeared behind them. She gave them a glare from behind her glasses. "Quiet in here, Mr Danforth." He said sternly.
Rico raised his flippers in innocence. "Id´s him, Ms Falsaff, not me. (It´s him, Ms Falsaff, not me.)" But as soon as she went away, Rico continued in the same volume. "Look, yur a hoops dude, nod a musical singer perso´!(Look, you´re a hoops dude, not a musical singer)"
Skipper rolled his azure eyes and continued checking out the books. Rico immediately caught up with him.
"Hav yu ever seem Michael Crawford on a cereal box?" The maniac asked.
His leader turned to him with a mild interested look on his face.
"Who the deuce is Michael Crawford?"
"Exactly my point!" The scarred bird placed his basketball on the dictionary page Skipper was about to turn over.
"He waz the Fantom of the Opera on Brodway. Now my mom, she´s seen that musical 27 timez. She put hiz pictur in our refrijerator. Yeah, not on id, in id. (He was the Phantom of the Opera on Broadway...She put his picture in our refrigerator. Yeah, not on it, in it.)"
"And what exactly is the point behind that awkwardly creep story?"
"My poin´ iz, if you play basketball, yu´ll end up on a cereal box. If you sing in musikals, yu´ll end up in my mom´s refrijerator.(My point is, if you play basketball, you´ll end up on a cereal box. If you sing in musicals, you´ll end up in my mom´s refrigerator)"
Skipper seemed to miss the point of it all. "Why would she put his picture in her refrigerator?" He asked a bit irritated.
"On of ´er crazy diet ideez. Look, I won´ try to understan´ the female mind, Troy."
Speaking of females, Lulu was there again, giving them another one of her trademark glares.
Rico sighed and followed Skipper to the writing tables.
The penguin opened a book and began copying something down into a notebook. That didn´t save him from another attack from the weapon experts behind him.
"Ho´ can yu expect the ressed of us to be focussed on a game if yu ar some´ere off singing "Twinkle To´n" in leatards? (How can you expect the rest of us to be focused on a game if you are somewhere off singing "Twinkle Town" in leotards?)"
"No one said anything about leotards!" Skipper defended himself.
"Not yet, but just yu wai´ my friend!"
"Look, we need you Capta´n. Big tim."
"Mr Danforth." Lulu hissed impatiently. Rico jumped how close she suddenly was.
He raised his flippers again. "Tried to warn him, Ms Falsaff. Really tried."
He then turned, leaving Troy with that thought.
"Cut!"
Skipper winced at the loud voice. "Geez, we can hear you just fine, you don´t need a mega phone." He scowled.
"it´s fine. Also, loud enough to wake up the animals who had fallen asleep." AT replied, glaring at Julian.
Julian stretched. He rubbed his eyes and noticed everyone looking at him. "What? Is something being the matter?"
The others shook their heads. "Alright crew." AT stood up, gathering her things. "That was it for today, remember, same time tomorrow and be early!"
Skipper couldn´t help but glance at Marlene. She looked up and smiled at him.
–Same time tonight?
-Yeah.
"Ohhhh!" Julian got into the leader´s face. "I am spotting two love birds! Except that fact that is being you are a bird and Marlene is an otter." Skipper blushed.
"Stop it, we´re not together."
"Yet!" Kowalski teased.
Some others started to laugh.
"It´s not something bad!" Private tried to calm his commanding officer.
"Of course it is being bad!" Julian huffed. "Skipper is dating an otter not da Sharpay, so it is being very bad."
"Wait, wait. Hold on, Ringtail." Sipper sputtered. "Are you trying t-to say that I should b-be dating…y-you?"
Everyone was silent. AT turned the camera back on and began filming this, thinking she could put it in the "Behind the scenes".
Julian tapped his chin in thought. Then he brightened. "I am meaning if you are being Troy the super-hotty guy with strong muscles…then yes!"
Maurice face-palmed. "Just great…" He muttered to Mort.
Skipper choked.
"Unless, of course," Julian continued. "You and Marlene are already having a thing going."
Marlene´s face was the exact shade as Skipper´s. "What?"
"We´re not a couple Ringtail." Skipper said calmly, even though he was trying not to sprint forward and strangle the Katta. "We´re just friends."
"That´s what they all say." Kowalski snorted, but lowered his gaze when Skipper glowered at him.
"ANYWAY, practice is over, come on, men. Let´s roll." The penguins disappeared in a cloud of smoke.
AT turned the camera off. "Okay, you guys. I´m going to lock up now." The other zoo inhabitants went out and AT locked up for the night before heading out too.
A\N: So, should I put in a one sided\two sided Kico in? Or maybe a bit of Julene? R&R! xP