Hello fellow Seussians!

Well, for me, this week school went back and I am now officially a Year 8 (I don't know what that translates to in the American school system…). Now since I am back at school, with homework and less free time, I might not update as much. But I plan to update every month with a new chapter, I have planned a schedule and everything, and if I fail to make that deadline, I will try my hardest to make it up to you. Writer's Honour!

This chapter has two songs which are Biggest Blame Fool (Broadway Version) and Here on Who. I have slightly edited the songs to suit this story, but not too drastically.

I would like to thank disneydork29175 for reviewing, I'm so glad you liked the update! And, to those who didn't review, I know you are out there. Please don't be scared to review, I love all reviews, and if you don't like something, that's an even better reason to review, so I can improve this story for your enjoyment.

Disclaimer: I don't own Seussical, it characters or the musical numbers. They belong to their respective owners and Dr Seuss' Enterprise. I also don't own the costumes; they partly belong to West Gippsland Theatre Company's 2009 production of Seussical, except for a few tiny details. I do, however, own Kirsty and her little speech in the middle of Biggest Blame Fool.

Hope you enjoy it!

Sophie :)

Chapter 4: Whos and Kangaroos Don't Mix

When the kangaroo entered, Kirsty whispered to Horton, who was standing in front of her. "Uh, Horton? Who is that? Do you know her?" She didn't get a reply from him, but she could see that he did recognise her, and from the look on his face, didn't exactly see eye to eye.

"Humpf! ... Humpfed a voice. 'Twas a sour kangaroo," the kangaroo sang in a proud tone, as the music changed to a sassy, upbeat tune. "And the young kangaroo in her pouch said:" On cue, a smaller kangaroo appeared from her pouch and jumped out, giving Horton the same look his mother had given the elephant earlier.

"Humpf!" the little kangaroo grunted.

"Too!" Sour continued, as she moved towards a scared Horton, inspecting his clover. She didn't seem to notice Kirsty, who was now a few feet away from them.

"Why, that speck is as small as the head of a pin. A person on that, why there never has been!" she said to him, letting out a derisive laugh. "You're the biggest blame fool in the Jungle of Nool and I don't care who I tell. The biggest blame fool in the Jungle of Nool."

"And I think so as well!" her son added.

His mother smiled at her son, then looked back to Horton. "Maybe I'm nasty, maybe I'm cruel. But you're the biggest blame fool," she shouted, for all the jungle to hear.

"In the Jungle of Nool," the young kangaroo finished off.

Horton stepped forward, trying to defend the dust speck. "It's true. Please believe me! I tell you sincerely. My ears are quite keen and I heard them quite clearly. I know there's a person down there and what's more."

"Quite likely there's two, even three, even four!" Kirsty said, making her presence known to the kangaroos. When she did, the Sour Kangaroo's eyes went wide. Who and what was this creature? She had never seen her before, in all her time as self-proclaimed head of the jungle. Something about the teenager made her suspicious.

Without any warning, a monkey, who was wearing a green fedora, jumped down from the trees, scaring Kirsty. "Ha! Laughed a voice!" he shouted.

"Ha! Laughed some others!" a second monkey shouted, wearing a similar yellow fedora to the first, a little less confidently. He looked to be a few years younger than the first.

"Ha! Ha! Ha! Laughed the Wickersham brothers!" another monkey shouted, who wore a pink fedora and looked to be the oldest of the 'brothers'. He grabbed Kirsty by the wrist, as they started to dance around her.

"Oh, he's the biggest blame fool in the Jungle of Nool, and monkeys like us should know," the Wickershams told her, for some reason, now interested in her.

"No, no, no, no!" Sour added, also now focusing on Kirsty.

"We've been out on a limb, lookin' down on him-," the brothers sang.

They moved to Horton, who was rather hoping they had forgotten about him."And he's fat!" the oldest sang, pocking Horton rather hard.

"He's dumb!" the middle one added, tricking Horton, making him trip over.

"He's slow!" the youngest one joined in, while Horton tried to stand up.

"Uh huh!" the Sour Kangaroo commented, sticking her nose up at him.

"Elephants ain't too swift as a rule, but he's the biggest blame fool in the Jungle of Nool," the Sour Kangaroo and the Wickershams sang, returning to Kirsty." 'Cause he's talkin' to a speck - talkin' to a speck - To a speck of dust."

"Blame fool in the Jungle of Nool," the middle Wickersham told her.

"Talkin' to a speck, talkin' to a speck, to a speck of dust!" they continued.

"Blame fool in the Jungle of Nool" the middle Wickersham repeated.

The Sour Kangaroo took Kirsty away from them, giving her an opportunity she could refuse. "R-e-s-p-e-c-k! Oh, please! Take that speck away!" she told her, giving her the chance to be with her. Kirsty looked to Horton, then back to Sour, who was smiling at her. She knew she didn't have much time to answer, and before she could say anything, words began to come out of her mouth automatically.

"No! I won't! I heard it as well!" she shouted to the jungle, the music screeching to a halt. The whole jungle watched in amazement, especially Horton, who was completely speechless. "You must have heard it, it was as clear as a bell. I really don't care if you are a leader or cool," she pointed to the Sour Kangaroo. "Really YOU'RE the biggest blame fool in the Jungle of Nool!"

All the citizens of the jungle gasped, whispering to each other. No one had ever said that to the Sour Kangaroo! Kirsty put her hands to her mouth, realising what she had done. She had never meant to say that out loud! She tried to hide her mistake, but it was no use; the damage was already done.

"Oh, really?" Sour said to Kirsty, giving her an evil smile. This had only worked to her advantage. She turned to the Wickershams. "Spread the news boys. We now have two fools in the Jungle of Nool."

Unfortunately for Horton and Kirsty, the music started up again and the rest of the jungle joined the kangaroo in mocking them. "Did you hear? Did you hear? Did you, did you hear?" they sang, rumours spreading fast.

The three girl birds from earlier came back into view and moved over to where the Wickershams had been standing, who were now racing across the jungle, spreading the gossip of the speck. "Through the jungle, the news quickly spread."

"Did you hear? Did you hear? Did you, did you hear?" the jungle citizens repeated.

"They talk to a dust specks! They're out of their heads!"

Great…now everyone is going to know about the speck…Well, at least things can't get any more out of proportion, right?

Kirsty's thought was interrupted as a man, who looked to be a news reporter, came onto the scene. He was followed by two small creatures, one holding a video camera and the other a boom microphone. "Our topic today is "Psychic elephants and strange unidentified creatures who hear voices," he said, which made Kirsty groan in frustration.

I stand corrected. This entire world is the meaning of the saying 'out of proportion'…

The reporter ignored her and continued talking to the camera. "Whaddaya think, folks... Is the elephant off his trunk? Is the strange creature even stranger than we first thought?"

And now I am a strange, unidentified creature. What is this world? It just loves to make my life even more difficult.

"We'll be right back with 'speck', 'clover', 'dust', 'neighbor', 'who'... Stay tuned - we'll be right back!" The music went back to its usual groove and the man and his companions moved themselves around, until they reached a young girl bird. She looked different to the girl birds Kirsty had seen earlier, her tail the major difference, which was only made of one lilac coloured feather.

"Biggest blame fools in the Jungle of Nool," the jungle chanted, as the young bird began to speak to the reporter.

"I'm Gertrude McFuzz, and I live right next door. He's never done anything crazy before," she said to the man, before looking toward Horton and his new friend.

"Biggest blame fools in the Jungle of Nool," the jungle repeated.

She cleared her throat, her confidence struggling. "He's always been friendly and loyal and kind. I just don't believe Horton's out of his mind!" she said, sincerely. Horton tried to thank Gertrude, but she moved away before he could speak to her.

The reporter moved around, until a glamorous and flamboyant young girl bird stopped him in his tracks. She was almost the complete opposite of Gertrude, her very large pink shaded tail the most obvious.

"Did you hear? Did you hear? Did you, did you hear?" The jungle sang.

The pink girl bird pulled the microphone up to her mouth, the reporter frozen in awe. "I'm Mayzie La Bird and I live in that tree," she told the man, showing off her magnificent self.

"Did you hear? Did you hear? Did you, did you hear?" the jungle repeated.

"Enough about Horton. Let's talk about me!" Mayzie proclaimed, grabbing the microphone out of the man's hand. The three girl birds moved over to her, acting as her backup singers. "Let's talk about, talk about, talk about, talk about... Me!" they sang, just before the man managed to snap out of his trance and get his microphone back.

The reporter ran around, interviewing many jungle citizens as he went, while they continued to sing. "Talkin' to a speck, talkin' to a speck, to a speck of dust!"

"Blame fools, just a fool, just a fool!" the Sour Kangaroo sang.

"Talkin' to a speck, talkin' to a speck, to a speck of dust!" the jungle repeated, beginning to dance around Horton and Kirsty. Gertrude stood to the side, not wanting to get involved.

"Blame fools in the Jungle of Nool!" the Sour Kangaroo added, before the reporter held the microphone out to both Horton and Kirsty, the music dying down to a slow beat.

"We just had to save them, because after all," Horton sang softly. "A person's a person no matter how small."

Gertrude stepped a little bit forward and quietly began to sing with him and Kirsty. "A person's a person no matter how..." Their intermit moment was interrupted however, as the reporter left the scene and the music went back up to its original speed.

Everyone in the jungle was surrounding the two now, making it impossible to escape. "Biggest blame fools in the jungle of Nool, in the jungle anywhere," the entire jungle sang, teasing Kirsty and Horton. "Just two big nervous wrecks, they're protecting a speck, when they know there's no one there."

"Acting as if they're holding a jewel," the Wickershams sang, who were hanging down from the trees.

"Somebody stuck a truck on a mule," commented the Sour Kangaroo, looking to Horton.

"Biggest blame fools in the Jungle of Nool, Nool, Nool! In the jungle of Nool, Nool, Nool! In the jungle of Nool, Nool, Nool," the entire jungle sang, as the music reached a crescendo. Slowly, the creatures left the clearing, the Sour Kangaroo and her joey the last to leave.

Just before she disappeared, she looked to Kirsty. "Just to let you know, our community has standards. If you want to be a part of it, I recommend you follow them, or else, you will have to pay the price for breaking the rules." With that, her joey hopped back into his mother's pouch and they disappeared into the jungle.

Kirsty sat down on a rock, the clover now in her hands. The puffy pink plant hadn't made a sound since they placed the speck onto it. She looked to Horton, then back to the clover. "I'm really good at making a great first impression, aren't I?" she said, sarcastically, before sighing. "I didn't mean to say those things to Sour, really I didn't. It was as if someone had just put those words in my mouth." She looked to Horton, who was still standing where he had been for the past five minutes. "I still don't get how they didn't hear and I did. From what I know, humans have terrible hearing compared to animals. So why did things end up the way they did?"

"Maybe it was because they didn't listen hard enough?" Horton suggested. "Or maybe they didn't listen at all?"

His friend nodded, before a thought came to her. "Or maybe they didn't believe it, therefore they didn't hear it…" she whispered. She also wanted to know why the Sour Kangaroo was so harsh to Horton, like she had a grudge towards him for some peculiar reason, but she didn't want to pry in his personal life.

"Well, we told the truth. That's all we could do. If they choose to not believe us, then there isn't much we can do to change their view." Horton moved over to Kirsty, putting his trunk lightly on her shoulder. "How about we try talking to the clover, to see if their actually is life on this speck?"

As it did a few minutes before, the voice yelled out. "Help! Help!" it shrieked, making the two suddenly alert.

"Hello? Is anyone there?" Horton asked the dust speak. "Who are you?"

"Well, " a male voice said, another beat began. " We're who's here. We are Whos here. Smaller than the eye can see. It's true, sir. We're Who's. Who, sir. I'm a Who and so is she."

When he finished, another voice was heard, this time a women's. "We're tiny little people, blowing by in the air, wondering how and why," they sang in unison." We're on Who, the ti-iniest Planet in the sky!" Just at that moment, the rest of Who began to hum a little tune.

Horton listened in amazement, his eyes wide with curiosity. Kirsty sat a little away from him, listening quietly and nervously. Her mind was still getting used to this fantasy, her serious nature not familiar with this amount of impossibility.

"We're Whos here, win or lose here, struggling to stay alive. Each gust propels our dust. Oh, how the heck do Whos survive? At any given moment we could crash or be drowned, hitting the ground, oh my! Here on Who, the ti-iniest planet in the sky," all the Whos sang, before splitting into different parts.

"Who! Who! Who! Who!"

"I'm the mayor," the original voice, who now turned out to be the Mayor of this place, sang.

"Who! Who! Who! Who!"

"I'm his wife," The second voice added.

"Who! Who! Who! Who!"

"Just imagine the Whos' unusual life!" The couple sang, as Horton and Kirsty did just that. As if it was planned, Kirsty began to see what looked like a regular town, except nothing at all was straightforward or simple, but in a way, everything looked perfect and clean. She tried to tell her companion, but he was too busy focusing on the Who's story to notice. However, the picture quickly vanished, as Who continued.

"Picture the tiniest houses and grocery stores," a Who family sang.

"Tiny umbrellas that drip on the tiniest floors," another family added.

"The tiniest tunnels and tiniest streets."

"Miniature buses with miniature seats."

"Miniature buildings with miniature windows and doors!"

"No smaller town than yours," Horton said.

"We've got a marching band that is small but grand. Oh, you ought to hear them wail!" The whole who population sang, a bunch of peculiar sounding instruments playing on cue. They played for a few minutes, before the Whos continued with their song. "And every Christmastime, without fail, Mr. Grinch presents his Christmas tale!"

At that moment, the one who they called the Grinch started to sing, his voice a lot different to the rest of the Whos. "I re-enact my Christmas tale!" The music changed to a Christmas melody, where the Grinch began to tell his story. "Every who down in Whoville, liked Christmas a lot...But the Grinch, who lived just north of Whoville...Did not!" When he finished, everyone applauded him with delight, including Horton and Kirsty.

"Imagine a place that is tidy and totally clean," the Mayor told them.

"Where even a Grinch wouldn't dare to be totally mean!" the Grinch added.

"You think that it's heaven on earth, yes, you do!" the Mayor said, a little bit of worry coming into his voice.

"But heaven on earth isn't heaven on Who!" his wife admitted, her voice changing also.

"Troubles on Who are the biggest that you've ever seen," all of Who sang, the music becoming tense. This made Kirsty somewhat confused, so she moved closer to Horton and the clover, wanting to know more.

"We're on the brink of war, they say," Mr Mayor stated.

"We're going to war, and oh my!" the whole of Who cried out

"'Cause if we do, then here on Who," Mrs Mayor sang.

"Well, you can kiss Whoville goodbye!" all of Who finished, their voices sad.

"Our skies are unbearably dark," the Mayor sang, with great sorrow.

"And war is unbearably near..." his wife added.

"And that's not the end of our troubles, here... " Mr Mayor sighed, the atmosphere grew tense. The music grew even gloomier, which made Horton and Kirsty begin to worry.

All the Whos grouped together, singing in a mourning tone. "For on the other side of town, the Truffula trees were all cut down. They once stood tall, in all their glory- But that's another story..." Kirsty glanced at Horton, who looked like he was about to cry, their story hitting him hard. She suspected that she looked simular, she was so shocked by what they had said, and that one single, miniscule planet could have so many problems. "So here on Who, we live in fear. We're drifting through space and cannot steer! A troubled and a tiny land ... Our futures in your hands... "

Horton turned to her, and held out his trunk, which meant that he needed her. Their words made Kirsty speechless, and slightly shocked. Give her this much responsibility? She could barely look after her own life, when she was in her orphanage, let alone an entire planet of beings! What if she stuffed up or worse? She stepped back a few steps, not knowing what to do.

Who must have predicted her reaction, as their next words were directing to her. "It's up to you, both. Please help Who, miss. You're the only ones who hear," they pleaded to her, the Mayor and his wife the loudest. "You must, miss! Save our dust, miss! Now that we have reached your ears! We're tiny little people Saying thanks in advance, hoping perchance, you'll try! Here on Who, The ti-iniest planet in the sky..." As their voices faded, Horton spoke to them.

"I won't let you down. No, I won't let you fall. A person's a person, No matter how small," he promised. He felt someone touch his truck, and turned to see Kirsty standing beside him.

"A person's a person," she continued, giving him a small smile.

"No matter how small," they both sang, gazing at the clover they held together.

"Whoooo!" All of Who sang in relief, before the clover grew silent once more.

The two creatures also were silent for a few seconds, both amassed with what had happened to them just a moment ago. "I can't believe it! We rescued an entire world!" Horton exclaimed, breaking the silence. "Now all we have to do is prove to the jungle that we aren't crazy, which shouldn't be too hard. How about I take you back to my place, where we can get you settled in? Or do you want to have a bit more of a look around?"

Kirsty shuddered, remembering her meeting with the Sour Kangaroo, along with the majority of the jungle. "It would probably be best if we save a tour until all the hullabaloo about the Whos has died down. We don't want you to become so scared you run away, do we?" the elephant said, almost reading her thoughts. She nodded, passing the clover to her, before he went in the direction they had come from before.

She followed him slowly, before stopping unexpectedly, something bright catching her eye. Looking at her necklace, she noticed that it now was engraved, the decorative writing illuminated. "Seussia…" she said aloud to herself, the word ringing a slight bell, but also feeling quite peculiar on her tongue. "Haven't I heard something like this somewhere before?"

"What did you say, Kirsty?" Horton asked her, while picking some yellow coloured berries from a bush a few meters away from her.

Before she could say anything, Kirsty felt a slight shaking, like a tremor. "Uhh...Horton?" Kirsty said, noticing that the vibrations had ground bigger and the trees were shacking violently around her. "What's going on?" Without warning, a red and white portal appeared and drew her in, before she could react or yell out to Horton.

When Horton turned around, a handful of berries in his truck, he gasped, seeing the clover on the ground and no Kirsty in sight. "Kirsty?" he called out, picking up the clover. "Where are you?" He numerous times, desperate to know what had happened to her, but she never responded, the familiar sound of the jungle the only thing he could hear.

*sigh* Finally, it's done! That took longer than expected.

Now, the next chapter...*looks through notes* is where our story gets transported to Whoville, where we are properly introduced to Mr Mayor, Mrs Mayor, the Council, General Schmitz and Jojo! YAH! JOJO! *coughs* Sorry, I am just really happy to finally be more about him. He's one of my favourite characters in this musical. It will hopefully be released this month, on which day I have no clue, but it will be released this month!

Please Read and Review! I love reviews, and I will always reply to your questions, comments, thinks and criticism.

(EDIT: This chapter was redone on the 27/07/2013. I have slightly edited the structure, but mostly, this edit was to do some much needed spelling and grammar fix ups and changed dialogue tags and whatnot. If you have the time, could you please comment on this edited version?)