Atticus and Patch sat in the audience as the older girls danced to the music provided by the men with the song in the background. Darla stood backstage with the other little girls as they waited for their cue. Darla seemed to already love the song while it was playing. The others seemed only slightly nervous. Moses looked to them and signaled for them to come on stage now. Yuki, Teresa, Elena, Myrtle, and Darla then walked out on the stage, Darla paid close attention to their moves so she would know what to do.

"One... Two... Three... Four... Five..." Moses counted, then sighed as the other girl had not shown up.

"I'm sure that whoever is late is on her way right now," Atticus assured him before whispering to himself. "I hope."

Cherry ran with the little girl and she went to the stage door in the back. "You're soaked, hold on!"

The little girl ignored her and came right in as the others had already gone on without her. Moses paced as the late little girl decided to jump in with the crowd when he wasn't looking and started to dance with the others like nothing had happened. Soon the song ended, and the dancers recited an ancient Hawaiian proverb, then suddenly, the others began to slip and fall on the stage.

"Oh, my..." Atticus winced.

"Stop... Stop..." Moses came up on stage. "Lilo..." he looked to the black-haired girl, revealing her name to Atticus, Cherry, Darla, and Patch. "Why are you all wet?"

"It's Sandwich Day." Lilo replied like it was obvious.

Moses gave her an odd look.

Lilo took a deep breath. "Every Thursday, I take Pudge the fish a peanut butter sandwich."

"Pudge is a fish...?" Moses glanced at her strangely.

"And today we were out of peanut butter!" Lilo continued. "So I asked my sister what to give him and she said a tuna sandwich! I can't give Pudge tuna!" she then whispered. "Do you know what tuna is...?"

"Um, fish." Darla said, obviously.

"IT'S FISH!" Lilo shrieked at the top of her lungs. "If I gave Pudge tuna, I'd be an abomination! I'm late because I had to go the store, and get peanut butter, 'cuz all we have is... Is... STINKIN' TUNA!"

"Lilo..." Moses bent down to her height. "Lilo, why is this so important?"

"Pudge controls the weather." Lilo replied quietly then.

"How can a fish control the weather?" Darla asked.

"She's just crazy." Myrtle muttered nastily.

Lilo glared at her, then tackled her down and started to punch her which made the other girls scream and run away.

"Please! Please!" Moses tried to control his students. "Everybody calm down! Girls..."

Myrtle ran behind the teacher with Yuki, Teresa, and Elena. Darla seemed to now go over to Lilo, not caring what the mean girls, her so-called new friends, thought.

"Lilo..." Moses started.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" Lilo got instantly scared and nervous. "I won't do it again!"

"Maybe we should call your sister..." Moses suggested.

"No, I'll be good!" Lilo pleaded. "I wanna dance... I practiced... I just wanna dance... I practiced..."

Moses had a small smile.

"Ew, she bit me..." Myrtle stared at her arm.

"Eww..." the other girls grimaced.

"You okay?" Darla asked Lilo.

"I think so..." Lilo whispered.

"I don't blame you..." Darla whispered back.

Moses then left for a moment.

"Darla!" Myrtle stormed over as Yuki, Teresa, and Elena followed like her own personal posse. "WHAT are you doing!?"

"Being nice to Lilo and not calling her a mean name." Darla told her.

"Why?" Myrtle glared. "She's weird!"

"Yeeeaaahhh..." Yuki, Teresa, and Elena agreed.

"You should hang out with us, Darla," Myrtle encouraged. "We're normal and cool, we were gonna go to my house after class and play dolls."

"Well, I'm sorry, Myrtle, but I don't play with anyone that's mean to people, even if they might be weird," Darla said before looking to Lilo. "No offense."

"None taken." Lilo shrugged.

Myrtle frowned firmly to that. "Well, I guess you just lost some real new friends..."

"Yeeeaaah!" Yuki, Teresa, and Elena said what they said again and together.

"Is that all you three ever say after she's done talking?" Darla asked.

Yuki, Teresa, and Elena looked to each other then, not saying anything then.

"You wanna be my friend?" Lilo asked, a little surprised.

"Sure!" Darla smiled. "Never be ashamed to be your true self no matter what... I certainly didn't."

"Wow, thanks." Lilo smiled.

Darla smiled back, she now made a friend, who felt more true than the other girls.

"You owe me..." Cherry said to Atticus since she had to track down this girl in particular.

The rehearsals started again, and after a little while, the girls had their casual clothes back on and Lilo wore a red mumu with white flowers and black sandals. She had to sit outside and the other girls then took out their dolls and ran out once class was over. Darla walked up to Lilo and sat next to her.

"She's really evolved since your family adopted her." Cherry said to Atticus.

"Yeah... I'm really proud of her..." Atticus agreed.

"Me too." Patch smiled as Darla stayed with Lilo as the other girls left.

"Cool, you have a talking dog?" Lilo smiled as soon as she overheard the Dalmatian talk.

"Oops..." Patch cupped his muzzle with his paw.

"Patch is a very special dog." Darla said.

"Wow..." Lilo smiled. "I wish I had a pet."

Moses then came out and looked down to them all, but mostly to Lilo. "I called your sister," he informed. "She said to wait for her here on the porch. We'll try again on Sunday." he then went back indoors since classes were over for the day.

"Why aren't your parents picking you up?" Darla asked.

Lilo silently glanced to her, not answering that question, then saw the other girls and really wanted to talk with them once she saw they had their dolls out. She then made her way over. Darla shrugged, then decided to maybe do the same.

"Does this look infected to you?" Myrtle asked, looking at her arm again.

"Yeah..." Teresa winced.

Suddenly, the girls then turned to see Lilo with Darla coming behind.

"You two better not have rabies." Myrtle glared.

"If you have rabies, then the dog-catcher's gonna have to cut off your-" Yuki was about to advise.

"Are you gonna play dolls?" Lilo asked.

The girls glanced at her and hid their dolls behind their backs.

"You don't have a doll." Myrtle scoffed.

"Do you?" Darla asked Lilo.

Lilo reached into her bag and took out a different kind of doll. It was sickly green and had a large head with button eyes, stitched mouth, and a ribbon tied around the yarn hair. "This is Scrump."

The other girls recoiled in instant horror and alarm.

"I made her," Lilo explained. "But her head is too big, so I pretend a bug laid eggs in her ears, and she's upset because she only has a few more days to..." she then looked to see Myrtle and the others abandoned her, but Darla stayed right by her side like a true friend.

"I think your doll is really cool and cute." Darla smiled.

"Y-You do...?" Lilo asked as she looked like she was about to throw her doll in the ground.

"She's special to you and I think that's a special name..." Darla said. "'Scrump'."

Lilo had a small smile, then looked to the school as no one came for her yet. "I'm just gonna go home... I don't think I can wait for Nani..."

"I'm sure she's on her way." Darla told her.

"I don't know..." Lilo muttered, then walked away, carrying her doll without even saying goodbye.

Darla wanted to stop her, but wasn't sure if she should or not.

"Darla, that was very nice of what you did for Lilo." Patch told the blonde girl.

"It was the least I could do, besides, she seems like she could use a friend." Darla said.

"Good girl." Patch smiled.

Darla smiled back, hugging the Dalmatian puppy.

"We should meet Mom back at the hotel," Atticus said. "Hope she's okay."

"I didn't see your mom at the beach earlier, despite her telling us she would be there..." Cherry said.

"She must be in the ocean." Atticus said.

"Hopefully she comes inside soon, I heard it's gonna rain later tonight." Cherry said as she took out her room key.

"I'm sure she will." Patch said.

Cherry, Atticus, Darla, and Patch then walked off.

"So, did you enjoy hula class?" Atticus asked his younger sister.

"Would've been more fun if it wasn't for those spoilsports..." Darla replied as she watched her feet since she was walking up a small walkway above the path.

"Yeah, I guess those mean girls did ruin it a little." Atticus said.

"Yeah.." Darla pouted.

"Well, remember, if you stand up to bullies, they almost always stand down," Atticus advised. "Dad taught me that."

"I'll take your word for it." Darla smiled.

"Great." Patch smiled.

They were now passing the beach as a large man in sunburn was about to have his ice cream, but it fell on the sand before he could have a taste of it. A wave crashed by, but not in a dangerous way, Emily had a tail fin for a brief moment, then her lower half glowed and her legs returned.

"That was a great swim." Emily smiled.

"Hey, Mom." Atticus and Darla smiled back.

"Oh, hi, kids," Emily beamed. "Did you guys have fun?"

"Yep, well, besides three of the girls in hula class being mean to Lilo." Darla told her.

"Oh... I'm sorry to hear that..." Emily said. "Who's Lilo?"

"My new friend," Darla replied. "The other girls thought she was weird, but I liked her."

"Well, I'm happy to know that you made a friend here." Emily smiled at her youngest adopted daughter.

"I'm happy too." Darla gave her a hug.

"And how was your swim, Mom?" Atticus asked.

"Just wonderful..." Emily said as they decided to walk back to the hotel. "I saw the strangest thing though, this fish had a peanut butter sandwich in its mouth."

"That must have been Pudge, the fish Lilo fed." Darla said.

"I think that's what he said his name was..." Emily said. "Kinda hard to understand him since he had peanut butter in his mouth."

"And she said that Pudge controls the weather." Darla said.

"That's what I heard..." Emily said.

"A fish controlling the weather?" Cherry asked.

"That's what the others were saying under the sea," Emily said. "Since this Lilo gives Pudge something he likes from the human world, he decides to reward her."

"So then, he's going to make it rain?" Patch asked.

"I heard that it is going to rain later tonight, but it'll be a light shower, not like a storm or anything like that." Emily smiled.

"Whew." Atticus sighed out of relief.

"It's all right, Atticus," Emily smiled soothingly. "Just a light shower, it might get heavy overnight, but there shouldn't be too loud of thunder booms."

"I like the sound of that." Patch said.

"Well, then, shall we get back to the room?" Atticus asked.

"Yeah," Emily said as she saw the hotel come into view. "I hope it's okay, but I'm going to order us room service, it was exhausting coming here and we all already spent a day with our vacation."

"Understood, Mom." Atticus said.

"Yeah, that's fine with me. "Cherry added.

"I'm gonna be out for a little bit more." Patch said.

"Just don't forget your tags." Emily reminded.

"Right." Patch nodded. He then went off on his own.

Atticus, Cherry, Darla, and Emily waved, then went to the Bird's of Paradise Hotel.

They came into their room and ordered room service which would be free for them since Cherry won the contest that gave them that special room.

Darla decided to practice some hula dancing since she was a student now. "Practice makes perfect." she smiled to herself.

"That it does, dear," Emily smiled. "I wonder where Patch is going."

"Probably just exploring." Atticus said.

Emily ordered room service. Cherry stared out as there were storm clouds moving in, making it instantly dark even though it was only just the early afternoon.