The Adorable and The Kooky

“Okay, that’s it. Lay off the fucking PDA!” Brandy ordered, a disgusted expression plastered across her face.

“You can ring my bell, ring my bell!” Wrenn increased the volume of her singing after the remark.

Fawn rolled her eyes before landing them to share a smile with Darla. A sure sign that uptight Wrenn had passed the line from tipsy to drunk? Hanging off her husband while unsubtly grinding on him and singing along to the song.

“Ring my bell, ding-dong-ding!” Wrenn sang in Brandy's direction before Tim pried his wife’s hands away from the back of his neck. “Ring my bell, ring-a-ring-a-ring.”

“Try me again. I’m not afraid to beat your butt in front of your husband,” Brandy threatened.

“You’re just jealous that I found my truelove and didn’t blow it,” Wrenn snapped back.

Fawn’s head jerked around to stare at Wrenn in shock.

“Wrenn! How could you?” Darla gasped.

Both women glanced at Brandy in trepidation as Wrenn realized what she'd said.

“I…I didn’t mean him, Brandy. You know I’d never–” Wrenn stammered an apology until it got waved off.

“Yeah, yeah, whatever,” Brandy said, blowing off the comment. Yet, the momentary expression of pain on her face caused Wrenn to feel guilty. She truly hadn’t meant the guy in question with her comment.

Ever in between her two polar opposite friends, Fawn spoke up before the situation escalated. As they stood at the bar under Brandy’s orders, the bespectacled blonde brought up a point she’d made minutes earlier while they still waited for the bartender to return.

“You know, this is precisely why we don’t need another round,” she declared, gesturing to where Wrenn performed a highly non-athletic spin.

“I’m not feeling great,” Darla added in her usual way of agreeing. The often flustered brunette did look a bit green in the face.

“You can puke once you’re back in your room. Not until then, lightweight!” Brandy directed, expecting Darla to hold it in. That’s when the bartender returned with their round of shots. “Drink up, girls. Who knows when we’ll be together again.”

Despite any reservations, Brandy’s point hit home. All the girls downed their shots in honor of their long friendship. Even Tim didn’t mind that Brandy skipped ordering a shot for him, although he gladly paid for the round. It was rare to see his wife letting loose and enjoying herself in this manner. He made a note to **** Wrenn to visit Honey Hollow more often.

The foursome shifted to watching their fellow ballgoers dance. They paid particular attention to who danced with whom this close to the ball's end. Darla got teased at her brother's awkward dancing with his wife. And with Dean still on the dance floor, Brandy wondered about Teddy's whereabouts. She knew he hadn't gone upstairs with Olympia and the kids. Not only did Cassie's night mean the world to Teddy, but he also didn't get to see his old friends often. So, he would stay down here as long as possible. A decision that fit with Brandy's plans.

Fawn drew Brandy's attention back to her niece. They'd only finished discussing the three guys with whom Peyton kept trading dances. As Nate and Eoin were known individuals to the women, Spencer had occupied much of the discussion. The most gorgeous face had turned out to be the consensus, along with Brandy and Wrenn gushing about his ass. Not that Nate and Eoin didn't outshine Spencer in other areas.

“Ooh, new contender?” Fawn teased with Darla hiccuping her laugh.

Brandy didn't reply as they watched Kiki drag Peyton away from the guys and dance suggestively with her housemate while singing along to the lyrics. As if Brandy's currently high-strung niece hadn't already appeared uneasy, Stephanie rushed over. Joining in, she and Kiki formed a sandwich with Peyton in the middle. The four older women could clearly see Peyton ordering them to stop. However, when Zaylie added her curvy body to the mix, Peyton started laughing at her friends' antics as they asked her to ring their bells.

Wrenn threw up her hands as her clique scanned the crowd. A solid number of wives mimicked her actions with Tim while dancing with their husbands. Of particular note, they pointed to some of Bridget’s old cheerleader friends. Shelly and Cookie’s husbands appeared very receptive to what their wives' actions suggested for upstairs later. At the other end of the spectrum, Quincy O’Dell and Philo Fawcett looked uncomfortable at the public displays of affection that Shayla and Maura poured on.

One older man didn’t have any issues with creating a scene. Monty Rusk drew plenty of eyeballs as he acted out ringing a large bell with his outstretched hand. Always a colorful character, the used car dealer’s dance moves appeared similar to the outlandish moves of those inflatable decorations that graced his car lot. It was his dancing with the divorced Lauren Caputo-Rogers that raised eyebrows.

“Gawd, it’s embarrassing when your parents get freaky on the dance floor,” Brandy commented.

“Hey!” Darla exclaimed.

“I wasn’t talking about your parents creating new dances,” Brandy reassured. Although the Dawkins dancing goofily while thinking they looked graceful did cross her mind.

“Nah, she meant Salty Seamus and his Pepper Shaker,” Fawn giggled.

"Don't even," Brandy warned before pointing across the dance floor. "I meant them."

“Oh,” Fawn sounded after following her friend’s finger.

Delilah O’Dell wasn’t standing there as she’d gone upstairs to the expanded cheerleader sleepover, nor was Penn Wexler, as he was off hitting on a girl, likely a blonde, somewhere on the dance floor. The Roger triplets wore a mix of wide-ranging expressions at Monty dancing with their mom. Loren appeared pleased at her mom getting down, and Rowan beamed with hope. On the other hand, Lex looked mortified at the antics. Joining him on the more embarrassed end of the spectrum, Dove Flavin blushed at her parents' behavior. However, it was her friend Nikki Fitch’s elbow nudging that caught the older clique’s attention.

“Wow!” Fawn reacted.

“Holy crap!” Darla exclaimed.

“Oh, who is he kidding? She’ll eat him alive,” Brandy stated, watching her longtime neighbor Elliot Ridge dance with Naomi Fitch. The former Sugarbee held a reputation as a very passionate woman. One that almost no man could handle for long.

Almost automatically, the clique searched the ballroom for Kirk Langley, Elliot's best friend. They almost couldn't locate the college professor until Fawn thought she spotted his face through the crowd. Although she couldn't discern the woman's identity, the school librarian found it fitting that Kirk danced with a redhead tonight. He'd held a serious crush on Cassie while growing up.

While searching the ballroom, Darla alerted her friends to a curious pairing. Hayden Peel danced with Kathleen Francy. Both had gone through high-profile divorces.

“Hmm, I wonder if Bee and Fi had something to do with this?” Brandy speculated aloud.

“Bridget did mention not allowing Bev to play matchmaker for Hayden,” Fawn recalled.

“If only to piss Gemma off even more,” Brandy added with a sinister smirk. Then, as the next song started, she nodded. “Okay, get ready. My song is up next.”

“Your song? They already played your song, remember?” Fawn teased, kicking into singing a few lyrics. "Brandy, you're a fine girl. What a good wife you would be.”

“Don’t mess with me,” she warned as Darla joined Fawn’s singing. “I meant song request.”

“Request? I thought Rachel had a lock on the playlist,” Fawn noted.

“Dee picked that lock,” Darla giggled, glancing over at the DJ.

“Gawd, I hope not. He looks scuzzy,” Wrenn remarked, sizing up the DJ.

“I didn’t have to do anything,” the leggy blonde defended herself. “With the storm outside and the ball getting extended, Rachel’s playlist is running short. So, the DJ is finally taking requests. I scored the very first slot.”

And while Fawn and Darla looked at each other, wondering what song Brandy requested, Wrenn watched an odd development taking place.

“Uh, what’s Erin’s kooky cousin doing?” she questioned.

“Did you just use the word kooky?” Brandy asked incredulously.

“Who? Do you mean Chastity?” Fawn inquired, ignoring the second question.

---

"Mind your own business!" Tandy scolded a man who appeared to be eavesdropping on their conversation.

Next to her, Rosita used her phone to snap a picture of the man. He also got a warning about what would happen to him if anything they’d discussed ended up on The Stinging Truth. It wasn’t that they knew he worked for the tabloid, but Tandy’s patience had long vanished as she continued to wait for her ankle to get examined.

Needing something to keep her mind off everything, Lacey kept track of all the people in the hospital emergency room’s waiting area. By her count, six more people were in line before Tandy and Xavier. At least the news about Kip’s injury continued to get better as Kona briefly stepped into the waiting room when the Peavys arrived to check on their son.

Suddenly, Lacey shot out of her seat as Rachel walked back into the waiting room with Samantha Denton. Marcus immediately nudged Xavier with an elbow and nodded at the attractive doctor.

“How’s Dad? Is he going to be okay? Is it just his hand?” Lacey rattled off a string of questions.

“Relax. Your dad is going to be fine. They’re just finishing up with the cast. We shouldn’t be here much longer,” Rachel explained. “They’re also prescribing a painkiller for him.”

"Uh, I hope it's not what they gave Sean," Lacey responded. While the others didn't know about Sean's side effects, they could tell something had happened based on the redhead's queasy expression.

“Oh, no! It’s not that one,” Rachel replied, giggling at the thought of her husband acting as loopy.

“Good! I need to get back to the hotel. All my matchmaking plans are falling apart. Reilly isn’t with Rammy’s mom,” Lacey fretted. “And Ms. Blick’s plan has to work. It just has to!”

“Let my cousin pick who he wants,” Rachel responded before turning toward the other teens sitting with her daughter. “What happened here?”

“Milner’s party,” Marcus stated.

“Right. I stopped to talk to Pete and Paula. They said Kona brought Kip here with a few others, but I didn’t know more of you were injured.”

"Some guys said some stuff about Lacey and Austin breaking up," Max explained.

"What?! Lacey, you never…when did you and Austin break up? Oh, honey, are you okay? Why did he do that?" Rachel rambled.

“It happened when I went to get the car, and I’m the one that dumped Austin. I…I just finally had enough of him being so selfish, Mom,” Lacey revealed, her eyes beginning to glisten.

Watching Rachel wrap her daughter up in a hug, Samantha sought to give them as much privacy as possible in the crowded room. So, she inquired about the other teens' injuries. Tandy immediately showed off her swollen ankle.

“Yes, you definitely need that examined and X-rayed,” Samantha stated.

Pulling out a pencil flashlight, she kneeled before the sitting Xavier. And while she checked his pupil response, the teenager happily checked out the considerable amount of cleavage that her dress showed off. Marcus shook his head in partial jealousy as Xavier transformed into the most polite teen ever while also asking questions that kept the hot MILF in her kneeling position longer than necessary.

“Thank you so much, Dr. Denton. I truly appreciate your taking the time to check on me,” Xavier responded, laying it on thick.

“It’s not a problem. And while I don’t think you have a concussion, it won’t hurt to get examined under the proper conditions.”

Max shook his head this time as it was obvious what Xavier had in mind for the proper conditions.

“Are you coming back with us, Mrs. Denton?” Lacey asked once her moment with her mom ended.

“Unfortunately not. Little Richie is okay now with his stomach pumped, but I just had another patient show up. I want to be here for her. So, it looks like a long night for me. If Newt isn’t already in our room playing a game, could you let him know? I swear, that boy ignores his messages while playing around,” Samantha said with a loud sigh.

“I see the media hasn’t left,” Rachel noted while Lacey agreed to tell Newt.

“I am so complaining to Grandpa Rollie about Gordon Green. The Daily Flyer shouldn’t employ such a nasty pest,” Lacey declared. “Rammy’s also going to get an earful about him.”

“I can’t imagine Clive wants to walk past all of them,” Samantha remarked, peering out the window to the small crowd waiting. “If you want, Rach, you could leave by a side door. I’m sure Cheryl can make sure that it’s alright.”

“That would be great. Thanks, Sam,” Rachel thanked, letting out a relieved sigh. “Now, I just need to pull the car up.”

“I’ll go get it,” Lacey said, holding her hand out for the key.

“You already scratched the car when we arrived. No more driving for you,” Rachel responded.

“How is that my fault? It’s icy out, and you and Dad were ordering me in opposite directions,” Lacey argued.

“Max, Marcus, you know what my husband’s car looks like. Can one of you drive it up to the side door? It’s on the second floor of the parking garage,” Rachel asked before Samantha suggested which side door to head to.

“I can get it,” Max said first, grabbing the car keys before Marcus could. “I need to get out of this room for a few minutes.”

“This is so unfair!” Lacey pouted while crossing her arms.

“No, that’s what’s unfair. You’re going to have a new boyfriend in days,” Tandy complained.

Lacey’s confused expression caused Rosita to clarify her friend’s point.

“Guys even find your pouting to be adorable.”

Marcus and Xavier shrugged their shoulders and nodded in agreement.

---

“Hey! This isn’t my song!” Brandy screeched, shooting around to stare down the DJ.

“I guess Brandy didn’t pick his lock, or Chastity’s sweet personality overrules this one’s favors,” Fawn joked to Darla.

With Tim wandering off, the four women had spent the previous song watching with curiosity as Chastity went this way and that way across the ballroom. She’d dashed around, dragging other women to a spot before holding up a finger for them to wait before she rushed off to add more.

Tuesday Brass and Maggie McSweeney had been yanked away from dancing with Penn Wexler and Jordan Yegge, respectively. So when Chasity hustled Mulberry, March & Stratton's newest secretary, Jacinda Booth, away from chatting with one of her bosses, the clique assumed that bubbly blonde focused on ex-cheerleaders as targets, much to Brandy's concern.

Yet, Chastity next tore Helen Krogh away from Reece Kittle before pointing at Simone Savoy to get over to the spot with her dropoffs. The addition of the two former Sugarbees threw out the cheerleader theory. As did a freshly finished news reporter in Cleopatra Monroe getting cajoled by Chastity. Nearly all the women protested initially, but no one could keep saying no to the bubbly blonde.

Only when the loveable secretary scooped up her first guy in Santino Fuentes did Becky Horton in a nearby group figure out the connection.

“She’s rounding up her graduating class,” Becky revealed. As a grade below Chastity, she’d caught on quicker than the confused Peyton and Merritt, who stood near her.

The revelation brought a rare smile for the night to the face of Sage Pierce. She'd always had a soft spot for Chastity around Diamond Corp, even if she sometimes found her chattiness annoying. Now, with the father's diagnosis, Sage vowed to treat Chastity even better in the future.

“Is she recreating prom night?” Brian Weeks, Becky’s fiancé, speculated.

“Ole, ole, ole, ole,” Chastity sang with while clapping. “Ole, ole, ole, ole”

Then, as the music hit, Chastity started dancing backwards, her arms slightly out to the side while she snapped her fingers. All around her, the group she’d gathered reacted as they realized what Brian had wondered.

Laughing, Tuesday shrugged her shoulders and kicked off her high heels. Although frowning at first, Helen wasn't about to let her old rival upstage her, leading her shoes to fly off. Several more of their old female classmates followed suit, recalling the performance that Chastity practically willed into happening at their senior prom.

Me mind on fire
Me soul on fire, feeling hot, hot, hot
Party people
All around me feeling hot, hot, hot

Less singing, more screaming at the top of her lungs, Chastity poured every ounce of her being into her energetic moves, especially her exaggerated facial expressions. She also threw her arms out and high in the air at each rendition of hot, hot, hot.

“What to do on a night like this? Music sweet, I can't resist,” Chastity screamed in her old classmates' faces as she turned in a circle. “We need a party song. A fundamental jam.”

So we go rum-bum-bum-bum
Yeah, we rum-bum-bum-bum
Feeling hot, hot, hot
Feeling hot, hot, hot, oh, Lord

The first two lines saw Chastity bend over and shake her bum, although her poofy dress kept her curves obscured. Then, she threw her arms up and down wildly on the following two lines. Her performance served as a reminder of the dance, leading her classmates to copy it. For others, they watched with awe as her ample bosom bounced around.

Grabbing her long Cinderella dress, the honey blonde playfully pulled it up and down, barely revealing her ankles. Next, the bubbly blonde started high-stepping as much as she could in her poofy dress. Tuesday and Helen immediately put on a leg show in their tiny dresses as they joined Chastity’s more covered dance moves.

See people rocking
Hear people chanting, feeling hot, hot, hot
Keep up this spirit
Come on let's do it, feeling hot, hot, hot

Despite being pleased to see Simone, Maggie, Jacinda, and the more bookish Cleo join in, Chastity wouldn’t be satisfied until everyone had a blast. Santino picked up on what the bubbly blonde wanted and grabbed her hand. Holding it high, Tino began swinging Chastity out as she twirled around. With each twirl, she reached out to drag more people into the dancing group.

Gone was selecting only members of her graduating class.

Becky, Brian, and Sage were some of the ballgoers who willingly joined in. Others had to be dragged into dancing while practically kicking and screaming. Eoin did so to Merritt, while Poppy **** Reece. Even a few were sacrificed, such as Nate shoving Peyton into Chastity’s clutching hand. Only Stephanie came close to matching Chastity’s wild exuberance on the dance floor, with her arms throwing bordering on the dangerous side.

So we go rum-bum-bum-bum
Yeah, we rum-bum-bum-bum
Feeling hot, hot, hot
Feeling hot, hot, hot, oh Lord

“There goes your original sidekick,” Wrenn announced, drawing Fawn’s attention to Chastity yanking a head-shaking Keeley Keady to her side.

If that **** participant had brought grins to her clique's faces, they roared with laughter as Chastity finally found her older cousin. They watched a horrified Erin Chantry basically get treated as a puppet by Chastity. Fawn turned to see Erin's old Buzzy Bee staff members walk over to join her clique.

“Not joining them?” Fawn inquired, causing Davy Earp to shake his frightened head.

“Isn’t she amazing?” Webster Whelan gushed, watching Chastity’s ability to bring joy to people with admiration.

The only response from his sister came in the form of a hard side-eye.

Any crazy thoughts of joining in were stopped when Brandy held her arms out, telling them to wait. And as “Hot, Hot, Hot” high-stepped to its end, Brandy could be heard muttering that the DJ, “Better not fuck me over again.”

Getting prepared, Brandy took several steps forward. Then, as her request hit, she whipped around, holding a bottle as a microphone while she started spitting the lyrics at her best friends.

“Oh, no, you didn’t?” Fawn gasped while Darla cheered, bouncing up and down.

---

Note: Sorry about the delay, I've been dealing with a case of writer's block. I think I'm past it now.