CM R2.3

After a lengthy and detailed story about the red headed girl's dilemma she stopped talking and looked at Perry with a very pitiful expression.

"So you want to dance with the top hat guy?" Perry asked. She nodded. "And to do this you need to get rid of the other girl. How exactly are you going to do that, and why are you asking me?"

"Well you are the only one here that isn't doing anything," she said. Perry looked around and noticed that she was correct.  "Come on, I know you can help me somehow, you look smart enough! I even have an idea! We'll make my man jealous by dancing together!" The alien gave her a doubtful look and she frowned. "It's not a great idea but I've seen it work in movies! Come on… um…"

"Perry."

"Alright! And my name is Sam. We will make him so jealous he'll leave that skank alone, and then he's all mine!"

"I don't know if you are aware of this," Perry said, "but I am not exactly Prince Charming."

"You're cute enough. I think…" She looked at Danny and back to Perry. "Oh you are right, nothing can compete with Danny! This plan sucks!" She put her face in her hands and sighed. "If only I could find someone more awesome than him, then…" She stopped midsentence when she saw Renda and Norbert coming to get punch.

"Who's this?" Renda asked, nudging Perry.

"Her name is Sam, and she is in a situation…" Perry rolled his eyes.

"Nice to see you're having fun. Sitting around! I'm Renda," she said to the girl. "What's your problem?"

Sam watched Norbert examining his drink. "I think my plan just got a little better. Do you mind if I steal your dragon?"

They let Sam take Norbert to the floor to dance. Perry explained what her plan was.

"Aw, and you almost got to dance with a cute human girl too. It seems Norbert stole your fun!" Renda snickered.  She made him stand and dragged him into the crowd. "We need to stay close to that manipulator. Who knows? Maybe we will have a chance to grab it! But you need to relax, and don't pretend you can't dance. I've seen you."

"What? When?"

"You seem surprised that I spy on you!"

Once on the floor, Renda and Perry assumed dancing positions, watching their opponent and the red haired girl. Sam was obviously trying too hard to get attention, but it seemed to be working. When the next song started, the girl with Danny excused herself and walked up to Norbert. The boy frowned when he realized he had been ditched, but it didn't take long for Sam to grab him.

"That wasn't exactly how she planned it… but it worked?" Perry asked, still unsure the silly plan had succeeded.

"You don't watch enough teen dramas with me!" Renda said, "It always works this way!"

"Well… that's great and all, but we still need that manipulator."

They thought about this through the rest of the slow song. When an upbeat song started, Renda laughed. "This is so obvious!" she said, "All we have to do is exchange that hat, for this," she grabbed perry's tophat and changed the color scheme to match Norbert's.

"Okay, and you think Danny will just let us do this?"

"No silly, we will have your little friend help us out."

Renda walked up to Sam and Danny. "I'm sorry but I need to discuss girly things with Sam. Come over here please," she smiled. Sam was confused and annoyed but followed her anyway.

"What is it? I don't need help anymore, I've got him back!" Sam frowned.

"Listen, this won't make any sense but we need you to do something for us. Get his hat away from him, and switch it with this one," Perry said as he handed her the other hat.

"Okay… and if I do this will you leave me alone?"

"Of course!" Renda nodded.

Sam took the other hat and went up to Danny. Before he turned around to see her, she grabbed his hat and threw it at the wall, dropping the other hat. He turned around just in time to see her pick the new hat up and place it on his head. "Seems you dropped this," she giggled and looked back at Perry and Renda when Danny looked away. Renda gave thumbs up and Perry rubbed his forehead.

"Well at least we have the hat now…" Perry said as he picked it up.

"Yes, we have the hat," They stood silently for a few minutes but nothing happened. "Why isn't the round ending?"

"I guess we still haven't defeated the archetype," Perry said. "However we are supposed to do that…"

"Maybe we should check on Norbert," Renda said, "I'm kind of worried about leaving him alone with that stranger."

"Yes but, what about his manipulator? He will want it back, and we can't just give it to him! Not when we finally have it." They didn't have to wait long before Sam and the girl she was competing with found each other.

"You tricked me! You geek!" the other girl spat.

"I tricked you?! You stole him from me the day before the prom!" Sam shouted back. The crowd had stopped dancing to watch the fight.

Norbert had snuck away from the outburst and met back up with Renda and Perry. "Oh you have Steve!" he said delighted. He grabbed it from Perry and placed it upon his head before Perry could object.

"Mom, do you have any ideas? You are the one who watches those weird human shows. What happens at the end of these?" Perry asked, getting annoyed.

Renda thought for a moment, looking around the room. She noticed someone was refilling the punch bowl when she got an idea. "If the other girl gets punch all over her, she'll get mad and walk away. That's happened a lot before in the shows."

Perry sighed. When he looked up she was already back with two Styrofoam cups filled with punch. "Okay, we are going to cover her in punch! Although…" she looked up at Norbert. "You would be much better at this because you are not shorter than that girl. Would you mind throwing this on her?"

Norbert was confused about the plan and shook his head. "That wouldn't be nice would it? Getting punch all over her? Wouldn't she get mad at me, like you said just now?"

"Um… nonsense! Just think of it like a game, we have to win this game in order to go back to the medium safely!"

Norbert, still confused, reluctantly agreed to play and walked over to the girls. He lifted up the cups above Sam's nemesis and turned them upside down, sending bright red liquid all over the girl's shiny yellow dress and blonde hair.

For a moment everyone remained still in their shock, but when Sam burst out laughing the girl turned around and growled at Norbert.

"Why would you do that!? My dress is ruined!" the girl huffed and marched to the end of the room. She disappeared behind the curtain near the bathroom exit.

"Watching these movies has actually paid off!" Renda grinned as she patted Perry's shoulder.

"I guess they weren't entirely useless."

"Miss Renda, you said she wouldn't get upset! Why did you make me do that? Now that girl is mad at me!" Norbert frowned at Renda.

"Norbert it's okay! Um… she was… just not playing it right! She is just mad because she lost our game!"

The dragon didn't completely buy Renda's act but was helpless to change what he had already done. Instead of objecting more he went over and apologized to Sam, who got a few drops of punch in the spill as well. She told him not to worry about it.

Danny appeared again and asked where the other girl had gone. Sam said she had decided prom wasn't worth her time and left.

"Ah, cool then…" he looked at the three misfit characters and gave them a strange look. "You are the people that tried to take my hat earlier," he said.

"Yes! But we were mistaken," Renda said, "We found his hat, see? They look very similar, which is why we were confused."

"Sorry for before," Danny apologized warily.

"It's fine," Perry said. He nudged his mother.

"Well I think I will go get some punch! To drink this time!" she said, turning around.

Perry followed her. "Now we have to get the hat back. This round is taking forever."

"Would relaxing kill you?"

"You have a new plan?"

"Uh…"

Before they could think of something new, they noticed Danny marching over to Norbert. He did not look happy.

"You poured punch on my date?!" He yelled. It was hard to tell how mad his voice was, considering he might have been yelling to be heard over the music, but his expression was very clear. Renda and Perry rushed over to help.

"Wait wait! It wasn't his idea!" Renda pushed herself between the boy and dragon.

"Was it yours?!" He growled.

The aliens nervously looked at each other. Norbert was clearly upset at the situation.

"I don't want to play this game anymore!" He said.

"Norbert it's okay just…"

"Hold on a second," Perry interrupted his mother and turned to their opponent. "You don't want to play this anymore? You want to… forfeit?"

"What does that mean?"

"It means you quit the game. You won't have to play anymore and…" Perry noticed his mother nervously looking at the crowd. "Nobody will be mad at you," he said as he turned around.

The entire crowd of teenagers had overheard their conversation and the music had stopped. The faces of the prom goers had changed into something eerie. Eyes were in shadows and nobody had an expression, not even Danny or Sam.

Norbert noticed the way they were looking at them too. "This is how they looked before you gave me these clothes!" he said quietly. "I don't want to play anymore. I quit! I don't want to play this game!" he said.

Immediately the crowd started to fade away into blackness. Renda grabbed Perry's arm and turned around to grab Norbert, but he was already gone.

"You made him forfeit..." Renda said.

"He had the idea. I just helped him say it more clearly."

After the entire world had gone into darkness, a lit door appeared behind them. They went through it and walked into a pile of gold balloons. After hitting them away they realized this was the party Pipiceek had mentioned. Like his first party and the prom, there was a refreshment table with snacks and punch. Unlike those two parties, they were in a church-like hall with tall ceilings and beautiful white and gold arches.

The other competitor's that had made it past their round were nowhere to be seen.

"Do you think we are the first to finish?" Renda asked.

"No. I think the artist doesn't want to jump the gun on guessing who will make it through to the next round."

"Oh, that would be kind of silly wouldn't it?" Renda chuckled. "I guess we'll wait until she can further the story, but until next round, do you want to dance?"

Perry frowned at her but agreed to anyway. "After this, I think I'm done with parties for a while."