Wow. It's been months since I last posted, and I feel really bad for that. I haven't forgotten the story at all, but this writer's block, lack of inspiration, and college stuff just made it terrible for me to even think about this story, which is sad because I've had it in my head for over a year...I think that was my biggest fear about posting it, that I would forget it and leave it unfinished...so, despite losing my muse, I'm going to try and post more regularly. Try really hard.
Also, note that the last half of this chapter was written today and isn't quite up to par with the rest, but...I needed to get to the next chapters, good stuff will happen!
Alright, enough of my whining...without further ado, the very delayed chapter eight!
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It was certain. Zoot absolutely, unconditionally, and unimaginably loved Janice. Everything about her was perfect. She was so smart, so beautiful, talented, optimistic...
He was so certain, so comfortable, so very, very sure that everything in the world was right and she was the sole cause...
Not that he had told her any of this.
He deserved credit for trying, though. After what must have been months, they finally fixed up the church so it was decent enough to hold about one hundred of their biggest fans as they played like never before. Afterwards, the band went out to Shonen's - one of the fancier restaurants - to celebrate. Zoot and Janice were able to duck away afterward, and after a lot of wandering and laughing ended back at their church. Everything was right, he was going to tell her all he feelings he had inside of him, even if it was just those three words, but just then Animal, Floyd, and Dr. Teeth made a loud entrance, singing some old Wiffenpouf song in two different keys.
And so, there he was, the words still inside him.
-
“Ladies and Gentlemen!” Scooter exclaimed into the microphone. “Are...well, are you ready to rock?”
He was met with a chorus of “Yeah!”
“Um, good! 'Cause here they are, the highlight of the evening! The very wonderful, the very exciting, the very violent and, um-” The boy stuck his head behind the curtain for a second. “-The financially very successful...” Same as always, Scooter mumbled some random sounds into the microphone, pretending that he actually said the band name. He really wished they'd choose one. But, as always, the crowd didn't care if they had a name or not, they just wanted to hear them play!
Scooter left the stage and the curtain rose, and on came the band, already jumping into their first song.
Tonight they were performing in a rather small club, the kind where the same people came back every night, devoted to the place as if they built it themselves. But never before had they seen a band like the one playing in front of them. They put their entire body and soul into their music; they acted as if they didn't even notice the audience was there and they were just playing to themselves, laughing and having fun. The band gave the audience all their energy, and the crowd gave it right back with their cheers and screams. Why weren't they everywhere?
“That was great, guys!” Scooter exclaimed as he heaved the last amp into the back of the van. “I think that was your best show yet.”
“Like, you say that at the end of all of our shows.” Janice pointed out.
“Well, it's true!”
After a quick inspection to make sure that everything was accounted for, the six climbed into the van (which was no longer dull gray, but a bright green) and set off for their church.
“Which song y'think we did best?” Floyd asked from the back.
“One about the girl.” Zoot suggested, leaning his head against the window.
“Almost all of our songs are about girls.” Dr. Teeth said with a laugh.
“You think, like, maybe we could sing a song about a guy?” Janice asked.
“Man, I don't wanna sing a song about a guy!” Floyd exclaimed.
“Alright, alright,” Dr. Teeth waved a long arm. “We'll write a song about something we are all very enamored with.”
“Which is...?” Zoot asked.
“Cheesecake.” The pianist said pointedly.
“Like, there's already a rull popular song about cheesecake, isn't there?” Janice pointed out.
“Small complication.” He laughed.
Half an hour later, everything was stashed in the church and the band was once again in the bus, headed first to Floyd and Animal's apartment to drop them off.
“Um, hey guys?” Scooter spoke up during one of the few moments of silence. “I got something I gotta, um, say.”
“What's up, man?” Floyd asked, raising a bushy eyebrow.
“Well, ever since Skeeter's come back, my uncle's been talking about...business. The family business.” The boy said.
“Everything is always about business nowadays.” Dr. Teeth muttered.
“LOVE!” Animal said involuntarily.
“Ding.” Zoot added from his half-sleep.
“Like, what does that mean?” Janice asked.
“Well...he's planning on taking us with him on all of his business trips…” Scooter said quietly.
The whole bus went quiet for a moment – he had become a member of their small family.
“Scooter…” Janice mumbled.
“Alright then!” Dr. Teeth said suddenly. “For the rest of your time with this humble collection of music-ians, Scooter Grosse shall officially be the manager of…us!”
“I thought he was the manager!” Floyd blinked.
“It was an unspoken decision.” Dr. Teeth said as he drove the bus further into the bad part of town. “But now that it has been spoken, Scooter can officially and actually receive that which will be most valuable in his future.”
“Knowledge and wisdom?” Scooter asked in awe.
“A paycheck!”
--
It was one of those days. One of those days where you wake up, the air is crisp, there’s not a bit of sleep still in your eyes, and you just know that it’s going to be a good day.
Zoot knew he would tell her today.
"Today I propose that which has become most increasingly evident." Dr. Teeth announced as he strolled into the church, Scooter following behind him.
"That the forces of nature won't let coffee be made or sold in here?" Floyd asked.
"We are becoming increasingly popular." Dr. Teeth went on.
"Of course!" Scooter added.
"Cats seem to love our covers and like our original songs-"
"Notice the difference in verbs." Scooter added.
"I did!" Janice smiled.
"But if we really want to appease our crowds, we need a hit." The pianist finished.
"Well, yeah, but, like, how do you make a "hit"?" Janice asked.
"A hit just "comes" to you, or so I have read." Dr. Teeth explained.
"So...we wait for something to come to us." Floyd nodded.
"Let, not wait." Teeth corrected.
"Is there a difference, man?" Zoot spoke up.
"DIF-FRENCE!" Animal added.
"Everything's different from everything," Scooter replied in imitation of Dr. Teeth.
"So we sit here and...let." Floyd said before plopping himself down on a pew.
"I'll go count the money from the last show." Scooter said as he headed towards the stairs.
The rest of the band sat down at or with their instruments. Floyd ran his fingers up and down his bass strings, softly humming some weird version of the national anthem. Janice stared blankly ahead, seemingly deep in thought, but actually thinking about where she and Zoot would go for dinner that night. Dr. Teeth sat in repose. Animal was the only one actually playing anything, but it wasn't really he basis for a song.
Zoot, however, was thinking about notes, the notes he heard in his head whenever he thought about Janice. Most of them really made no sense and a few of them didn't even exist. But then there was that one thing...like sunshine inside of a lava lamp...the "duun-" and the "daan-" and the "dun da dun, da dun."
"That was progress!" Scooter yelled from the second floor. Zoot hadn't realized that he had started to play. His bandmates stopped their thinking and nodded an approval.
"Play that again," Dr. Teeth said. Zoot played the few notes, stronger than before. The pianist got up from his keyboards and sat before the old organ at the front of the church. "Once more with feeling?" He asked. As Zoot played, Dr. Teeth joined in, hitting the same notes then going off into another thing. Floyd joined in as well, then Animal, then Janice...they were all playing, but this wasn't just a jam session, this was something more, something better, some sort of multi-colored, rhythmic catharsis...
"Is this your hit?" Floyd exclaimed.
"Looks like it!"
---
“Woah, hey, hoh, hold it!” After what seemed like hours, Dr. Teeth called for them to stop. The song had evolved from an awkward combination of notes that sounded the same to some sort of auditory lava lamp. Zoot blinked from behind his sunglasses. Is this what love sounded like? The sax player turned to the door where light was now pouring in and saw two people – well, a frog and a bear – had come into their church.
“Seems like our gentle mornin’ melody have attracted wandering admirerers.”
“Hey, like, I know you!” Janice exclaimed. “You’re from Sam and Friends and Sesame Street!”
“See, Kermit, everyone loves you!” The bear said.
“Um, who are you guys?” Kermit the Frog asked.
“We am, is, are and be they whom as are known as…us!” Dr. Teeth flashed a golden grin.
“Us?” The frog repeated.
“They can’t choose a name!” Scooter shouted from the floor above.
“That’s too easy!” Floyd laughed.
“You guys are a band?” Kermit asked.
“They are holding instruments.” Fozzie nodded.
“Like, you guys must not be from around here.” Janice said.
“Actually, Kermit’s from the swamp!” Fozzie exclaimed.
“Well what brings you dudes here?” Floyd asked.
“Well,“ Fozzie began, “This fisherman came along, and-”
“Fozzie, you aren’t going to tell them the whole story, are you?” Kermit asked as he suppressed a yawn.
“The band wants to know!”
“Don’t worry about it, frog, I have a good eye for plots and I think I know where this is going.” Dr. Teeth said. “This fisherdude, he gave you an offer that could change your life forever, right?”
“Well, yeah.” Kermit said, surprised.
“We’re going to Hollywood to be big stars!” Fozzie exclaimed. “Well, bigger, in Kermit’s case.”
“So you’re going along, minding your own business when out from the sky comes your antagonist!” Dr. Teeth said dramatically.
“Doc Hopper?” Kermit asked.
“If you say so!” Dr. Teeth nodded.
“Like, he went to a bar after that.” Janice said. “Guys always go to a bar after they’re put down.”
“I do!” Floyd laughed.
“He met the bear then.” Zoot piped up.
“He was in between the line of chorus girls.” Dr. Teeth said.
“Why were there chorus girls there?” Scooter asked as he came down the stairs.
“I just assumed, I mean, my pub had chorus girls.”
“No it didn’t!” Both Janice and Zoot said at the same time.
For about half an hour the band took turns telling parts of the story, which was in fact quite close to what really happened, if one took out the aliens, mysterious telephones, and Picasso. By the time the fictional Kermit and Fozzie had reached the church, which was twelve times bigger in their story, they had gone around the world twice.
“…then Kermit and Fozzie come walkin' down the aisle to the thunderously loud music of Janice, Animal, Floyd, Zoot, and Dr. Teeth. Which am us!”
The band cheered for themselves and their story.
“This was rully fun.” Janice smiled peacefully.
“Man, we could make a movie out of this stuff!” Floyd exclaimed.
“Movies aren’t really in my appetite.” Dr. Teeth said with a slight frown.
“Either way,” Floyd said, “We gotta keep this little froggy away from this Hopper dude!”
“Too true, too true.” Dr. Teeth nodded. “However,” he waved his hands towards the pews, “It seems to me the frog and the bear are temporarily out of service.”
“Easy, we just gotta figure out a good plot device to go with the rest of our story.” Floyd said.
“Like disguising the car so it’s won’t be recognized!” Scooter said suddenly. The band gave an enthusiastic consent and at once they took all of the paint that was meant for the church and began to make a cosmic design on the Studebaker.
Zoot couldn’t help but sigh inwardly, however. When they were all playing their song, they all put a bit of themselves into it. He put his feelings toward Janice in it, and the more they played, the stronger it got. And he was determined, that night, he would tell her. But then the paint happened. He was definitely all for helping friends, old or new, but he wondered how long he could keep up that same level of energy, especially with such a distracting factor as paint. As he painted, he started to hum their song to himself. Slowly, one by one, each member began to hum the song as well, it came naturally after how long they had been playing it.
And suddenly, they had lyrics.
By the end of the day, they had not only gone through three versions of the song with at least ten different verses non stop, but they had painted the Studebaker a thousand times better than any of them had expected. Kermit and Fozzie came outside shortly after it was completed, the bear shocked and ecstatic and the frog simply shocked.
“I don’t know how to thank you guys.” Fozzie said.
“And I don’t know why to thank you guys.” Kermit muttered.
The two groups exchanged farewells, all of them knowing that this wasn’t the last time they were seeing the other. The band watched and waved as the two drove down the dusty path, then began to retreat into the church.
“Oh, like, that was fun!” Janice exclaimed.
“Nice kids.” Dr. Teeth nodded.
“But aren’t you guys forgetting something?” Scooter asked. The band looked at each other.
“Me and Janice are going out to dinner tonight.” Zoot said.
“I remembered to hide the keys from Animal.” Floyd said.
“IGNITION! IGNITION!”
“You guys made a hit!” Scooter exclaimed.
“Oh yeah…” Janice mumbled.
“Maybe.” Dr. Teeth said.
“Man, I don’t know how much I like that bursting into song thing.” Floyd laughed.
“But…it was good!” Scooter insisted. “It just came to you, it was like magic to me!”
“It was okay.” Zoot added.
“Don’t you think something’s missing?” Janice asked.
“You guys…” Scooter started again.
“Maybe we need another chorus…”
Scooter sighed and returned to the second floor.
----
After a light supper in a casual restaurant, Janice and Zoot ended up going to back to Xanadu and back to Zoot’s old room, as he had been putting off editing one of his poems for about a week.
“I’m sorry about this, babe.” He muttered as he pulled some sheets from the desk. “You can go back to the apartment, I’ll catch up later.”
“But, like, I want to stay here with you.” She smiled widely from over his shoulder, trying to catch a glimpse of whatever he was writing. His heart skipped a beat.
“I’ll be quick.” He said, his arm covering up the poem. He didn’t want her to se it until it was perfect. He watched as she floated towards his bookshelf, which now only held back issues of the magazine, then turned back to his work. It was really no use, though, even though it was a love poem, all it was saying to him now was “tell her.”
“It’s almost Thanksgiving.” Zoot said.
“Like, I don’t know how to cook a turkey.” Janice said, ruffling through pages.
“Yeah.”
Silence.
Do it.
Inhale.
“What do you think?” Zoot asked. “About everything.”
“Like, everything is great.” Janice smiled from her seat on the empty bed. “But I don’t like how the weather’s getting colder, I don’t like wearing a lot of clothes. I don‘t have a lot of blankets either.”
“Um, yeah.” Zoot said. Inhale. “I meant with us.”
“Ohh.” Janice said, her voice now more quiet and vulnerable. She smiled brightly. “You know everything’s great. I think you‘re the best!” She stood up and walked towards where he sat.
“You are.” Zoot said, a small smile on his lips as he joined hands with her’s.
“Hey, Zoot, I was wondering…” She looked almost nervous now.
“Yeah?” He blinked.
“We’ve been going out for a while now, and it -is- almost winter, and, like, I was wondering, if maybe, like,” she frowned slightly, looking exactly like Zoot felt minutes ago, “If you want to move into my room?”
Zoot sighed, he was expecting her to say something terrible. “That‘s it?”
“Of course that’s it, it was a lot for me to say.” Janice with a frown.
“I mean, yeah!” Zoot said, giving her hands a squeeze. “Of course I want to.” He had been so surprised by what she said that he hadn’t even realized what she said. She wanted to be closer. Janice smiled brighter than ever. She bent down and kissed him, her hair forming a curtain around them, their own private world.
He could tell her tomorrow.
It took only three minutes now for him to finish his writing and get it to the layout people. Janice and Zoot left the buildings and were greeted with crisp winds. The bus was outside waiting for them. They could see not only Dr. Teeth was inside, but Animal and Floyd (who gave Zoot a thumbs up) as well.
“Like, what’s going on?” Janice asked as she and Zoot climbed inside.
“I was ruminating about the bear and the frog.” Dr. Teeth said as he closed the door and began to drive. “Their story seems to be just like a movie, and if I’m right, we’re the recurring characters who come and save them.”
“We’re going to Hollywood!” Floyd exclaimed.
“HOL-LY-WOOD!” Animal shouted, excited as Floyd.
The lime green bus flew down the roads, a comet in the sky.
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