Author's note

Semi-finals of the Pro-Bending circuit

Words (not including author's note): 1704

Prompts used: (genre) Fluff, (quote) "The happiest place on Earth"

Bolin stared at the costume, feeling slightly dazed. Naga. I'm actually going to get to be Naga. At Varrick Land. Officially. He'd signed up for the Varrick Mascot School just on a lark. The park had been a good place to make money during his gap year. There was nothing wrong with the hot dog stand where he'd been until last week. But mascot training had sounded fun, and it was only a few nights a week. It was one of those things you'd look back years later and regret not trying. So he'd tried it.

He didn't expect to finish in the top of the class and get the offer to play Varrick's signature character. Well, one of them. He'd always preferred Pabu in the Pabu and Naga cartoons, but Pabu needed someone small who could do a squeaky voice and Naga needed someone big who could do a deep voice. So a woman usually played Pabu, who was a boy, while a man played Naga, who was a girl. Weird, when you thought about it.

The supervisor of the Character Hosts department popped his head into the locker room. "Hey, Bolin. Before you suit up, come with me a moment. Mr. Varrick wants to say a few words."

"Sure thing, Mr. Toza!" After a second or two, his brain caught up with his ears. "Wait a minute. Varrick as in Varrick Land Varrick?"

Toza chuckled. "He always likes to greet any new Pabu or Naga personally." The big man lead the way to a small conference room. The only person in it was a girl from the mascot class. Opal, if he remembered rightly. She gave him a shy slightly nervous smile. Bolin smiled back, figuring he probably looked pretty nervous himself.

They sat in silence for a few minutes. Bolin was trying to figure out something to say to break the ice, when Varrick swept into the room. The creator of Naga and Pabu. The mind behind Varrick Land. Host of The Wonderful World of Varrick. Bolin hadn't expected meeting him to come out of taking the mascot classes. He wasn't sure if he'd have had the nerve if he'd known.

Varrick beamed at them. "Wow, this is quite a day. A new Pabu and a new Naga. Well, I just wanted to say great job. When people think of Varrick, they think of Pabu and Naga. And so when you go out there today, you will be the face of the Iknik Varrick company. Not every class of the Varrick Mascot School produces someone with the style and the heart to do that job, but you two have got it in spades. So welcome and congratulations. And remember, when you're out there, it's up to you to help make this the 'Happiest Place on Earth.'"

Bolin and Opal murmured slightly panicked thank-you's and rose to shake Varrick's outstretched hand.

As Varrick clasped Bolin's hand, he said in a slightly more normal tone of voice. "So, excited?"

Would it be too much to try the catch-phrase on Varrick himself? Bolin decided to chance it. "Yoouu betcha!" he said in his best Naga voice.

Varrick blinked and then a big grin spread across his face. "Pretty good, kid. Pretty good. Just draw the 'You' out a bit more. 'Yoooouuuu betcha!'" Then with a cheery wave, the man swept back out of the room as briskly as he had entered.

Toza nodded at the pair. "OK. You're going to be on balloon duty for the first week, to get you eased in to playing to an actual crowd. After that, you'll go in rotation with the other Pabu and Naga players in the park. Time to suit up, people."

Balloon duty was pretty simple. You wandered around Four Nations Plaza near the entrance of the park with a big bunch of helium balloons and handed them out. You posed for pictures with little kids. You stayed in character, but the balloons kind of reduced how much clowning you could do.

Opal and Bolin developed a little routine for whenever their paths crossed. She would scurry in a circle around him a couple of times, while he turned around trying to keep track of her, moving a little more slowly as if confused.

There were more older kids than normal for this time of year, because of the whole science thing going on. Several of the teenagers breathed in the helium for their balloons and then said Pabu quotes at him in high squeaky voices. Bolin did his best to play along, but even his memory for the cartoon's dialog got stretched to the limit.

As the various school groups started to leave in the late afternoon, and the park began to empty out noticeably. Fewer people were interested in balloons or pictures at this point. Bolin passed the slack time with people watching.

A boy and a girl walked through the plaza, holding hands. They went back and forth from looking fondly at each other to looking nervously toward the gate. They stopped just shy of the gate and reluctantly let go hands. Suddenly, the boy made a wait-here motion and ran straight up to Bolin. Bolin was so surprised it took him a moment to get back into character.

"Can I get a balloon for my…" The boy hesitated and blushed. "For my new friend?"

Bolin was in the middle of a hearty "Yoooouuuu betcha," and was about to hand over the green balloon the boy had pointed at, when an angry looking man came up and grabbed the boy by the shoulder. The boy missed the hand off, and Bolin was barely able to grab the string again before the balloon rocketed skyward.

The man was apparently a teacher from the boy's school, and was upset that he had disappeared from his group for the entire day. The boy explained that he had spent the day with a girl from a different school. Bolin glanced back to the gate and saw the girl looking on in alarm. The teacher then said some very unkind things about the sort of girl who would spend any time with the boy. Bolin watched in alarm as the boy's face darkened in anger, and he decided he'd better do something.

"Whoooaaa, just hooold on there," he said in his best Naga voice. He couldn't really make a stopping gesture with his hands full of balloons, but he swept his arms wide, and that at least pulled in the attention of both the teacher and the boy. He turned to the boy. "I'm just gonna take this over to your young lady," he said gesturing with the hand holding the green balloon.

He made his way across the plaza in a theatrical Naga amble. When he got to the girl he bowed and said "Complements of the young gentleman," as he handed over the balloon. She grinned and blushed as she took it. She leaned to look past him and blew a kiss in the boy's direction. At that moment there was a shout from the parking lot. She took a quick glance out, and then with a final wave at the boy, she dashed out the gate, still smiling, clutching the balloon string in her hand.

Bolin looked back toward the boy and the teacher. The boy had a big grin of his own. The teacher just looked flabbergasted. The boy glanced up at his teacher, stuck his tongue out and then made his own dash for the gate. Bolin sighed in relief.

The relief was short lived as the teacher stalked up to him and started to chew Bolin out for undermining his authority. Bolin made nervous apologetic noises, but the man wasn't having any of it. All of a sudden, a familiar voice said "What seems to be the problem?" With a sinking heart, Bolin turned to see Varrick himself looking on.

The teacher maybe didn't watch TV that much, because he didn't seem to recognize Varrick as anything more than someone in authority in the park. He began to repeat his grievances to Varrick.

Varrick listened for a moment and then draped his arm around the teacher's shoulder. "I sympathize, buddy. But the young man was just doing his job. I told him myself this very morning that he needed to help make Varrick Land the Happiest Place on Earth. Now, because of Bolin, the young lady was happy and the young man was happy. Now, you're unhappy, but I really don't see what he could have done about that without making more people unhappy. I don't want anyone to leave my park feeling unhappy, but I guess in your case that's just the way it's got to be." He gave the teacher a stern look. "Don't make me call security." The teacher sputtered for a few seconds but took the hint.

While Bolin was trying to think how to thank him, Varrick just turned and gave him an affectionate punch on the arm. "You've got heart, kid. Keep up the good work." And once again, he was gone as quickly as he had appeared.

Bolin passed the last hour before going off shift in a bit of a daze. Fortunately, nothing else out of the ordinary happened. He changed out of his costume in the men's locker room, putting it away carefully in the special wardrobe room. He met a few of the other mascot actors, who all greeted him pleasantly. If any word of his run in had spread through the park, none of them mentioned it, which was just fine with him.

Opal was in the hallway outside of the locker room when he came out. "I saw what you did for those two kids," she said. She didn't really look at him as she spoke. "It was really sweet. I'm glad Mr. Varrick thought so too." She glanced up at him, blushed, and turned to go.

"Hey, Opal," Bolin called out on an impulse. She turned back "Would you like to go get a coffee or something?"

She didn't answer right away, but a smile spread over her face. In her Pabu voice, she said "Yooouuu betcha!"