Meanwhile, in Halloweentown…
"Boogie's Boys are around here somewhere! I just know it! They're watching us, Jack! Spying! Waiting for the right moment! Oh, woe is us!"
The Mayor collapsed in a worried heap on the ground.
"Mayor," the Pumpkin King said, helping the little man up, "You really need something to calm your nerves! You know as well as I do that Lock, Shock, and Barrel left yesterday and haven't been seen since."
"Hm? Oh! Right you are, Jack!" the Mayor said cheerfully, "Right…right…"
He wandered off only a little ways before he stumbling back with his head flipped around to the unhappy side.
"Jack!" he cried, "I keep forgetting! If I go off by myself like that, Boogie's Boys will catch me!…Wait…hmm…" The Mayor furrowed his brows. "Can you help me out? There's something about those three that I need to remember…I can't quite put my finger on it…"
"Mayor!" Jack said, becoming exasperated, "For the last time! They aren't here!"
"Oh, that's it! Thank you, Jack."
Jack sighed. "Anytime. Now, go, um, make some plans or something."
"Splendid idea!"
Now, back to the main characters, because we all love them more, anyways:
Amanda's POV
I am pissed! Of all the Jacks we meet, it seems like we'd have met someone cool by now, but nooo we had to miss the coolest one! We just slipped right past him!
We were all pretty tired as we climbed back into the tub, and I guess we fell asleep. But soon enough, we were awakened by a sound coming from a passing ship:
"…Fell in love with a girl! I fell in love once and almost completely!..."
Evie shot up from her slouched position and twitched.
"White Stripes…" she said, a zombie-like look glazing over her eyes, and tried to jump out of the tub. Carrie and I had a good grip on her though.
"Does she do this every time she hears them?" Carrie asked. I let out a short laugh.
"You should see her when she hears the Scissor Sisters!"
Carrie, of course, was not aware of this. She's constantly under house arrest or something, so she hardly ever sees us. I swear! Her parents are crazy…and kinda scary, too…
But anywho! Where was I? Oh yeah! I am pissed!...No, no, I was past that…Umm...Oh, whatever! The next important thing that happened was that we reached Halloweentown again! That was…when it happened…Ooh, doesn't that sound ambiguous?
We were riding back to "the lair" when Carrie let out this weird sort of hiccup, to which both Evie and I gave her curious looks.
"I'm having malicious thoughts!" she cried. We gasped.
"You don't mean-"
"Yes!"
"No!"
"…Uh, seriously, yes!"
"Wait- what?"
"I think I'm turning into Shock!"
We gasped again and lightning struck in the distance.
"That was kind of weird…" Evie said. But I was having a horrid realization.
"If you're having malicious thoughts," I started, "Then- because I'm Barrel, I'm going to start having stupid thoughts! Nooo!"
"Haha, let's laugh at her," Evie said in a most un-Evie-like way. "Oh no! It's happening to me, too! We need to find Jack as soon as possible!"
There was only one thing to do! We jumped out of the tub and ran to the gate of Halloweentown. Which didn't open. Shit.
"Hellooo!" Carrie called through the wrought iron bars. "Anyone there?"
"Wait a second," Evie said, slipping through the bars. "We're small enough to fit through here!"
I moaned. "See? See? If I weren't turning into Barrel, I could have figured that out!"
Carrie rolled her eyes and pulled me along behind her.
"If I were Jack," she mused as we stood just inside the gates, "where would I be 315 days before Halloween?"
"Wow," I said sadly, "Did you figure that in your head?...I used to be able to do stuff like that…"
"Making plans!" Evie exclaimed suddenly.
"What?"
"That's where Jack would be, of course!" she replied. "C'mon!"
Evie, being the "Nightmare Before Christmas" fanatic that she is, had watched the movie so many times that she knew the town like the back of her hand. She led us into the town square where, sure enough, Jack Skellington stood amidst the hustle and bustle, looking at a blueprint of sorts.
"Alright, guys," Carrie whispered to us, "I know we don't want to turn into our counterparts any faster than we have to, but we agreed to act like them to avoid suspicion."
"Oh!" Evie said, "Is that why we agreed to it?"
Carrie cleared her throat and, in a high, scratchy voice, yelled, "Jack!"
Nearby, the Mayor fell into a dead faint.
"Boogie's Boys? What do you want?" Jack asked irritably.
Evie also fell into a dead faint.
"It's really him!" she said happily as she fell to the ground. I slapped my hand to my forehead. She wasn't doing a very good job with the whole "act like your counterpart" thing.
"What's wrong with Lock?" Jack asked.
"We need-" Carrie began, then cleared her throat again and started over in her Shock voice, "We need to talk to you, Jack. Privately."
"If this is some sort of joke…" he threatened.
"No, no! No joke," Evie said giddily as she came to.
"Lock?" Jack asked, perplexed, "Do you have a cold? You sound different."
Carrie (apparently having a few of her "malicious thoughts") hit Evie upside the head for slipping up, and I laughed. Wait- I laughed?
"Carrie!" I hissed desperately, "It's worse than I imagined: I thought that was funny!"
Jack was still confused. "Barrel, what are you talking- Uhm…Lock? Why are you looking at me like that?"
"This is fantastic!" Evie squeaked.
"Jack!" Carrie cried, "Can we please talk to you in private?"
Indeed, it seemed that everyone in the town had grown silent in order to hear our conversation.
"Erm, right," he said, looking around at the citizens who were now guiltily trying to busy themselves with something else. "Follow me."
gasp! they finally met the right jack! what happens next? tune in next time to find out!
ps- a cookie for anyone who likes the scissor sisters!