Fourteen year olds Andy, Allbert and Sheldon Kanker and eight year olds Larry and Terry Kanker were playing their usual game of 'H-O-R-S-E' with Ten year old Rick, Calvin and Noah, along with eight year old Ralph and Cole (the newest member of Larry and Terry's group of friends) and twenty-two year old Luca on their usual battle ground of the Van Bartonschmeer (Nate's last name) drive way, where a single hoop hung over their garage door. The boys were enjoying themselves, showing off moves they'd make up on the spot and laugh if they messed up, not noticing the girls of the neighborhood scurrying into their homes and racing back to Andy's house with their arms filled with photo albums until Luca's girlfriend, Isori, pulled up to Allbert's house and waved at him with a warm smile on her face, making him flush.

"Hey, look, it's Luca's giiirrrllllfrrriiieennndddd!" Noah and Calvin called out in unison, starting a slew of teasing and hooting as Luca waved them off with a smile and walked over to his girlfriend, who gave him a kiss on the cheek and motioned to the backseat of her car. Luca looked confused, but opened it and heaved four heavy looking photo albums to Mildred and Emma, who had been waiting for them on their front porch, only for them to point to Andy's house and lead the way for them, Isori carrying Emma (since she's only three) and holding Mildred's hand while she happily chatted with the two young Kanker sisters, the girls not noticing that the albums were beginning to slip from Luca's fingers.

Allbert, Larry and Terry dashed over and each took one, lightening his load and making sure his baby pictures didn't explode all over the cul-de-sac. It was at this point when the other guys realized that something interesting was going on and raced after them to see what was going on. "Thanks guys." Luca said to the three Kanker brothers.

"It was no trouble, Luca." Allbert said, his younger brothers nodded in agreement.

"Why do you have those albums, Luca?" Sheldon asked.

"No clue, Issy said that Milly and Emma called my mom while they were at work and asked if they could borrow some of my old baby albums. Mom was gonna go get them for them, but her client called and was really upset so Issy picked it up and brought it here for her." Luca explained.

The guys followed the girls inside Andy's house, to find the girls of the cul-de-sac lounging around Andy Kanker's living room. Mildred and Emma indicated where Luca and their brothers could put the albums before picking one up and walking over to Jasmine, Penny (who had Roxy beside her 'looking' at an album), Connie and Stella, who were flipping through stacks of albums before pulling out specific photos, looking triumphant, and dashing over to April, who then put it on their scanner/printer/copy maker and made a copy of the photos and then placing the photos aside before doodling on the copies with a red pen. Kim was on the computer with a notebook beside her, scribbling notes down on the page every once in a while. Mia and Tia were picking up the photos and placing them side by side on a white board in the middle of the room, where a few printed out articles, notes and a timeline were written down as well.

"What the heck is going on in here?" Andy asked.

The girls stopped what they were doing and looked at them, excited and determined, "You guys wouldn't believe what we found!" Mia cried excitedly.

Tia then motioned them to the board April had set up, "Take a look at this." She said.

On the board were photos of the parents of the cul-de-sac when they were about seventeen/eighteen years old, dressed up nicely and smiling. There was one set that had been taken outside during the day, along with a set of portraits with backgrounds similar to the ones they'd get in school, and a set of photos taken inside in a dimly lit room. Isori looked at the photos, curious, "Are these Prom photos?" she asked. The girls nodded, biting their lips to try and contain the excitement that was close to screaming out of them due to their discovery.

"What about them?" Rick asked.

"I agree with Rick, what about these photos fascinates you girls?" Ralph chimed in.

"You guys don't see it?" Isori asked them, astounded.

"No." they replied in unison. The girls all looked at each other, then rolled their eyes, as if to say, 'Boys…'

"They're wearing different clothes." Isori explained, then pointed to a picture of Ann and Larie, "See, in this photo here," she indicated the picture of the two of them smiling at the camera in the late afternoon sun, "They are wearing different clothes then they are in this one and Dr. Ann's hair style and make up is different," she then pointed to the one Ann and Larie got at the prom.

"So?" Luca asked, wondering what the big deal was about it.

"So!" the cul-de-sac girls cried out in unison. "So, it takes FOREVER for a girl to get her hair and make up for prom!" Mia snapped. "And she doesn't just change her dress out for another one without a reason!" Tia retorted.

"Hey guys, apparently there was a bomb that went off right before our parents went to prom that destroyed an overpass." Kim reported from the computer.

"What?" the room replied, then quickly huddled around the computer.

"Yeah, and there was a video that shows what happened at the time of the explosion." She clicked on a small image, making it expand to fill the screen, the children's eyes widened as they watched a limo chase a very familiar van on the screen…

The same van that Allbert, Larry, Terry, Mildred and Emma had seen their Father leave in to go to work this morning.

Sheldon then looked up at Luca, "Luca, you were there, right? Do you know what happened?"

Luca gave him a funny look, "Sheldon, your parents went to Prom twenty years ago, I was two, I can't remember what happened back then, and even if this has anything to do with the change of clothes, no one would've told me."

"Maybe you can ask your grandparents about what happened that night." Cole suggested, rubbing his hand back and forth along the top of his green mohawk, "I mean, they were there when your parents left for prom and they probably remember more about it…"

The room was quiet as they processed the information.

"Alright." Andy said, "Looks like we're all in to figure out what happened that night. Let's get some more white boards, call up our grandparents and do some more research on the web and in those albums."

"But what if we can't get the whole story?" April asked him.

Andy smirked, "Then we get the story from the source… Our Parents."

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(Hi guys, since this is a flashback chapter, (not like Chapter 9) I have some new transitions from past to present in this one, as well as symbols enclosed around omitted scenes that the original cul-de-sac crew would rather not tell their kids. I have a page on my deviant art explaining it, but I doubt you're going to actually go there and look at it so I'll tell you here too.

So if you see this:

. . .

We're going into or out of the flashback of the gang's prom.

If you see this, *, then you're reading a scene that the gang didn't want to tell their kids about but I let you all read it anyway. (I'm such a scamp!)

So, yeah, those are the two new things I'm doing in this chapter, will I use these again? I have no idea, but whatever, ON WITH THE STORY!)

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At four pm that afternoon, the parents of the cul-de-sac returned home from work to find notes on their front doors with the same following computer typed note:

'Dear Mom and Dad,

There is something we've been working on all day in Andy, Mia and Tia Kanker's basement. We invite you to see what we've done and discuss it with us this evening at six o'clock sharp. Anyone who doesn't arrived at the agreed upon time will be dragged there from work.

Love,

Your children.'

The notes were followed by the signatures of their children and, for Anny and Tee, an additional bit was added, 'P.S. Don't come into the basement until we're ready! Also, if anyone rings the doorbell, don't bother, we've got it.' in Andy's messy scrawl.

Anny and Tee looked at each other, wondering what the heck they were gonna do for two hours… Then they smirked and dashed upstairs for some alone time.

Chuckling when Andy went to answer the doorbell (the first time in that two hour span) and shouted up the stairs, "REALLY? YA COULDN'T HAVE GONE OUT AND SEEN A MOVIE OR SOMETHING?"

Finally the clock struck 5:50 and Anny and Tee hopped down the steps to let the other parents in.

When they were all there an accounted for, they spent a few minutes wondering out loud what their kids were up to before walking down the steps…

To find not only their children, but Luca, Isori, and all of their parents, Tiffany, Ann's Aunts, Cole and his aunt and uncle and even Gladys the Great was there as well!

They weresitting on an assortment of chairs thatthey recognized from various parts of their homes, set up in rows, filling all but the front row, while their children stood before a large screen on the far back wall. There was an assortment of snacks along the right wall and there were three white boards, covered in photos, printed out news articles and a timeline, lined up along the left wall of the basement. A projector was set up in the entrance of the room with a laptop connected to it, the lens aimed at the screen where the children stood, trying their best to contain all of their glee that they surprised their parents and failed miserably.

"Welcome." Luca said with an impish grin and a flourish of his arms as he indicated the crowd behind them, "We have special seats for you all right up front." He then lead them up the aisle and indicated to the far end of the row, where Isori waved cheerfully at them, "If you could please make your way all the way down so everyone can have a seat. We will begin shortly." He said.

The parents did so, feeling every eye on them as they did.

Pat whispered something to his wife as they took their seats, "Yeah, it does feel like we're being put on trial here." She replied.

Once they all sat down, Isori and Luca slipped to the back of the room, turned out the lights and turned on the projector and poked at the laptop, bringing it to life in front of them.

Everyone quickly stepped towards the snack table and filled up plates with tasty snacks, leaving all but the parents in the front row and April standing there alone beside the screen. As soon as everyone else took their seats, the words 'The Case of the Peculiar Prom Night' in red appeared beside her.

The parents stiffened in their seats, their faces looking a mix of surprised and uncomfortable.

"Since I was the one who started this investigation, we all agreed that I should give the introduction." April explained, a little nervous with all eyes on her, but she quickly straightened herself and looked out at the lot of them and spoke in a loud, clear voice, "This all started with a friend of mine getting asked to the Prom by her crush. She's really excited about it and wanted to look fantastic, but she also wanted to keep with the theme of it so he would be extra surprised when he'd see her. So a big group of us decided to check our family's old albums and look at our parents prom dresses and send her pictures. But…"

Two pictures popped up behind her, both showing seventeen year old An and Jay smiling with twelve year old Sam and Jamie, but in the first photo, An and Jay were in someone's front yard wearing a green dress and a white suit with a green vest and Sam and Jamie wore semi-formal clothing. In the second photo, they were at the prom, with An wearing a yellow dress and Jay wearing a black suit with a yellow vest while Jamie wore a pink prom dress and Sam wore a white suit with a pink vest.

"As you can see, my mom wore two dresses on her prom night, which was weird, since, according to Grandma…" she indicated to An's mother, "Mom had spent a month, starting three weeks before Dad asked her to go with her, looking for the perfect dress. So why would she change dresses after spending so long looking for the perfect one? Then I finally wondered why Uncle Sam and Aunt Jamie were in the picture at the Prom, since they weren't old enough to be there and I asked the Principal and he said that middle schoolers weren't ever allowed at Prom, not now and definitely not back then."

An, Jay, Jamie and Sam slunk a little bit in their seats, looking guilty.

"So why were they there? Then I began to wonder if Aunt Ann, Uncle Larie, Aunt Anny and Uncle Tee had changed clothes too, so I called Mia, Tia, Mildred and Emma to check their albums. Kim was at Mia and Tia's house and Penny, Jasmine, Roxy, Stella and Connie were at Mildred and Emma's house, after seeing that, they too had changed clothes," the two pictures of Jay, An, Jamie and Sam were replaced with four photos starring Anny, Tee, Ann and Larie. "Kim decided to check her parent's albums too," Two pictures of Karen and Nate in different formal clothing then lit up the screen. "Then Penny, Roxy and Connie wanted to check their parent's albums too." Pictures of Patrick, Jenny, Conner and Rachel then took Karen and Nate's place on the big screen before them.

At this point, the entire front row of parents had slipped down in their seats, their faces anxious.

"We then noticed that Luca was one of the prom photos with Aunt Ann," a photo of Ann in her prom dress holding a smiling two-year-old Luca filled the screen.

"Aww, look at our wittle baby!" Miranda swooned, making everyone, even the parents on trial chuckle.

"MOM!" Luca cried from the back, embarrassed.

"What? You were such a cute little two-year-old…!" Fiona began.

"MOM!"

"They grow up so fast!" The women cried in unison as they pulled each other into a warm embrace, sounding heart broken as the room filled with laughter.

"MOMS!" he shouted sternly, so embarrassed that his blush crept up from his face and reddened his ears, "LET HER FINISH!"

"Sorry!" the women cried out in unison, then made a zipping motion over their mouths, telling their son that they would be quiet and listen while he sat down on the steps for a moment, to silently recover from that embarrassing ordeal. April gave Luca an apologetic expression, "Sorry, but it was such a cute picture…" Luca lifted up a hand and then motioned for her to go on as she had before while Isori went back to comfort him, saying that, "I thought it was cute too." He groaned and April took that as her cue to resume her explanation.

"So we had Isori bring some of Luca's albums here and looked through them too." April said, "Then the guys came in and that's where it got even more interesting…"

Andy walked up beside her, handing her a full plate of food as she slipped towards the others, then said, "We discovered that, that night, there were reports of kidnappings all over Peach Creek…" He then looked at the screen, only to see that two-year-old Luca and the seventeen year old that would later become his aunt were still smiling at all of them.

"Issy, you mind?" Andy asked plainly, then indicated the screen.

"Oops, sorry." She called from the back, then dashed up and tapped on the laptop to show a map of Peach Creek covered in multiple red dots, Andy then pulled out a fencing sword with the handle shaped like a fish and poked the screen where each dot was, "Various clothes makers, designers, make up artists, and hairstylists were the ones taken by…" Andy then held the blade of the sword as a set of mug shots lit up the room, revealing an older man holding up the numbers on his sheet with one hand while holding the other behind his back, "Frank Dearly." He finished, then he whirled the blade in the air as he explained that he was, "some guy who made fancy clothes or something, I don't know, anyway, he had been canned from his job at some clothing company…"

"Andy!" his sisters snapped, "It's not just 'some clothing company!' It was the 'Elegance Boutique'! It's a brand that consists of only expensive formal clothing!" Mia corrected. "And his suit designs were half of what made the company the success it was back then and now!" Tia added, annoyed.

Andy waited a beat before saying, "Whatever, anyway, he snapped and kidnapped a bunch of people, he was also accused of blowing up an overpass." He then smirked as he then stepped aside with April and said, "And we found the video the police got off of a ATM camera that had a nice shot of the overpass at the time of the explosion."

The screen then exited and Isori clicked through the laptop until she found the right video file and pulled it up and pressed play.

The video showed a few seconds of an empty street before the retro van their parents had used so often in their youth whizzed onto the screen, a stretch limo squealing behind it, a man's head popped out he pulled something from his side and the back doors of the van opened then quickly shut closed.

Then an explosion erupted between the two vehicles and the van rocketed off screen, leaving the limo with the front of it lurching over the edge of the broken overpass.

The projector was turned off and the lights were turned back on, making everyone hiss from the change of light.

Once they recovered, everyone's eyes went straight to the seats in the front row.

"Well?" Allbert asked them, "Would you mind clearing up what happened that night for us?"

"Why not ask Gladys the Great?" his father replied, embarrassed, "She forced us to tell her everything that happened that night the next day."

Everyone then looked to the elderly woman, who smiled impishly that they all now knew that she knew everything about that night, "Because this way is much more fun to watch!" the old woman explained cheerfully, "Now," she said with a clap of her hands as her eyes were alight with eager glee, "Start from the beginning and don't hold anything back!"

"You realize our children and parents are here, right?" Anny murmured.

"Alright then, a tastefully edited version of the story!" Gladys compromised. The children now seated in front of their parents with plates of snacks in their laps, wide eyes and excited expressions.

The adults in the front row looked at each other nervously, before letting out defeated sighs, they knew that neither their children nor their parents would let up until they told them what happened that night so they might as well get it over with now.

"Alright, alright." Tee groaned, "We'll start from the beginning…"

. . .

The Kanker Brothers were in their grandma's kitchen, washing dishes (Jay scrubbing, Larie rinsing and Tee drying), while Ben and Bethany were sitting and chatting with Gladys about the apartment hunt.

"Jeez, it was easier prepping for Prom then finding a decently priced apartment in this town." She said loudly as she glanced back at the boys, hers and Gladys' eyes wide and eager as Gladys nonchalantly asked, "Speaking of Prom, isn't it coming up soon?"

"That's in April." Ben said dismissively, quickly realizing what they were doing and trying to combat any potential chaos that could ensue from the boys flipping out over a school dance, "It's MARCH. They have time."

"Not really." The women said in unison.

"You have to get the tuxedos, the tickets, the corsages, the limo, and of course they have to come up with a sweet way to ask them to the Prom…" Bethany listed, counting each necessity off her fingers.

"A limo?" Ben echoed, "Can't they just go in that van their girlfriends have?"

The two women looked at him with narrowed eyes and irritated expressions, "This is the PROM. This is the teenage girl version of a wedding day. You get all dolled up because you have to look so good that your date will not look at anyone but you. You can't just show up in a van, you need something as stylish as the girl you're taking to escort her in!" Bethany explained snappishly, Gladys nodded in agreement, a scowl on her face.

"Wedding Day? What are you two talking about? It's just a dance! Yeah, it's an important one, but the boys are saving up for school and for each of them to have their own cars, so give them a break! The suits, tickets and flowers will cost them plenty, leave them some money so they can become productive adults!" Ben said firmly. The two women paused, considering his point, then nodded, "Fine, no limos, but they still need to get the other things AND find sweet ways to ask them to the Prom." Gladys said firmly, as if they were negotiating instead of trying to help.

"They'll be fine!" Ben said with a wave of his hand, "Right boys?"

But the boys were no longer at the sink. The three adults looked around, then got up to search for them, finally finding them in the living room, frantically texting their friends, murmuring "Oh shit! Oh shit! Oh shit! Oh shit!"

Ben looked at his mother and the mother of his eldest son, annoyed, "If they snap from the pressure, I blame you two." He said flatly. The two women gave him apologetic smiles while he went to calm his sons down.

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The next afternoon, the guys were in Nate's living room, they sat around the room, solemn and silent as they stressed themselves out.

'Why is it that as soon as we finally figure out how to show that we care about our girlfriends for one thing, another one pops up?' Patrick wrote on a sheet of paper and held up to his friends.

"Cause then our love lives would be much simpler and easier." Tee grumbled in response.

"This is the Prom, if it was easy then it would just be another dance." Larie pointed out. "Yeah, this one we have to really step it up and wow them." Jay said, then slumped over and groaned, "Anyone know how we can do that?"

Sam looked around, a little fed up with this crap. Yeah, he understood how important this was, after all, An, Jamie and the other girls had been to the mall almost every other day for the past week and Jamie was constantly asking 'did he ask you to Prom yet?' (which he would ask her to stop doing as soon as he friggin' could) but it wasn't as if they didn't know the girls very well. Sam took a breath, then finally said, "Okay, so you have to ask them to the Prom, I mean, you're already dating them, isn't the hard part out of the way?"

The guys looked at him flatly.

"No." they replied.

"Well, you know what they like, why not use that?" Sam suggested, trying to lighten up the mood in the room, if it got any more gloomy in here, he feared that the temperature would drop. The others looked at him pensively.

Sam was right, they knew enough about their girlfriends that they could find a way they could ask the girls to Prom in ways that would impress them. They just had to think…

Nate was the first to say, "Got it, dudes!" The second person was Jay, Larie was third, Tee was fourth, then Patrick came in fifth as he scribbled, "Jenny's gonna love it!" and held it up for his friends to see.

Conner stayed silent.

"Dude? You need some help coming up with an idea?" Nate asked.

"Nah, partner," Conner said, holding his arms out and shaking his head before rubbing the back of his head, a little embarrassed, "I was thinking that, when it comes to Rach, I do better in the moment then I do when I plan something, so I'll go in without a plan this time around, if I can't get her until a week before, then I'll have you all back me up so I can ask her in private, but until then, I'm going in with no plans or goals, I'll ask her when the time is right."

His friends were silent for a moment before Larie chuckled, "And to think, a few months back you were panicking about how to show that you care about her…"

Patrick then put on a dramatically sad face and held up a sheet of paper that read, 'They grow up so fast!' and then pretended to weep onto Jay's shoulder. Jay went along with it and said, "There, there, they all need to leave the nest eventually…"

Conner threw a pillow at them and told them to shut up while the rest of them laughed.

Sam was relieved that the gloomy mood had lifted and soon had the guys explaining their plans to ask their girlfriends to the Prom to him, just in case they needed his help, but more so Jamie would stop pestering him about what they were gonna do and stop making everything worse with the girls.

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They all decided to wait until there was two weeks until the Prom to ask the girls to go with them (they didn't want to seem too eager). They enjoyed watching the girls squirm in anticipation of being asked, the girls dropping hints about wanting to go to Prom with them that became more obvious as the day of the dance came closer. Finally, the day came when they made their moves.

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(Author: MONTAGE TIME!

… ~sigh~ I missed this)

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Nate and Karen

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Karen was dragging her feet to her locker, Prom was in two weeks and Nate still hadn't asked her to go yet. She opened her locker and looked at the picture she had of the two of them in her locker and made a determined face.

She couldn't wait any longer, if he wasn't going to ask her, then she was going to ask him, after all, this was the twenty-first century, a girl could ask a guy to the dance without it being a big deal…

Right?

She closed her locker door and turned around to begin to look for him, only to see him with a beaming smile and his arms behind his back. "Hiya, Kar." He said cheerfully, then he pulled a bouquet of pink roses, babys breath and bakers ferns and happily placed it in her hands, "When we had that dance in Junior High, I wanted to dance with you that night and never got a chance. So I want to make it right," he handed her a ticket to Prom, "You want to go to Prom with me?"

Karen was stunned and silent for a few minutes before his question finally sunk in, admiring the flowers in her hands while his words were being processed by her mind.

Pink roses were her favorites, they had been since she was very little, when her grandmother would give her one every time she visited her, telling her that every pink rose was a love-filled kiss in flower form, and that every time she received one, it meant that she was loved very much, then she'd tickle her and kiss the tip of her nose. She closed her eyes and quietly breathed in the gentle scent of the roses, her heart filling up with warmth and joy as a loving smile grew on her face. She opened her eyes, finally seeing his nervous expression and chuckling a bit before giving him a big kiss on the lips and pulling him into a warm hug, "No duh I'll go with you, ya big dork." She chuckled. Nate smiled and hugged his girlfriend back, giving his passing, cheering friends a thumbs up.

. . .

"Aww! That was so sweet, Dad!" Kim gushed as she gave her father a hug.

"Nice one, Dad!" Noah chuckled.

"Classic." Calvin agreed.

Nate flushed and shrugged, "I'm just glad it worked so well."

Karen wrapped her arm around her husband's and gave him a peck on the cheek, "I am too." She purred.

. . .

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Jay and An

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An was sitting at the lunch table, waiting for her friends and boyfriend to arrive.

While she was anxious that Jay hadn't asked her yet, Sam informed her that Jay was eager to take her and was probably trying to think up a sweet way to ask her. An wondered why he'd need to do that, she'd be as happy as buttered toast in gravy if he simply walked up to her and asked her to go with him. (She'd say 'Yes' of course) She didn't understand why everyone had to be so dramatic about it, it was a special dance, sure, but what was special about it was how much fun you had with your friends and boyfriend when you were there, and considering the last dance she went to with Jay ended badly *(with them turning into the aliens they were dressed up as and fighting for their lives against an army of zombies)*, she was eager to go to one where she could just wear a pretty dress and dance the night away with Jay.

Jay dashed up to the table, a large, bucktoothed grin on his face as he reached her, "An, I almost forgot to show you this morning, but I got the newest issue of Evil Jane last night and I wanted to read it with you!"

An smiled vibrantly, even though it was no invitation to a big dance, reading comics with Jay was something she thoroughly enjoyed doing and she patted the seat beside her.

They snuggled close and began to read, An's worries about the Prom slipped from her mind as she immersed herself into the plot of this issue.

Finally, and sadly, they reached the last page of the issue. Only, this page's dialog was completely different from the rest of the comic. In the word bubbles, instead of Evil Jane having an argument with her opponent before leaping at him with an axe, it read, in familiar, messy handwriting, 'Hey An! Jay said he really wants to go to Prom with you, but he's nervous to say it out loud, so he asked me to help him. What do you say, An, will you go to Prom with Jay?'

An's face lit up with a luminescent smile and she gave her boyfriend a big kiss on the cheek, making him begin to float above his seat and his face turn crimson.

"YES, EVIL JANE, AN WILL GO TO PROM WITH JAY!" An cried, pulling Jay into a big hug and nuzzling her cheek against his, making his goofy smile curl further up his cheeks and making her friends, who had all been engrossed in their own conversations while they had been reading their comic book, look at her with a mix of concern and confusion until Jay dreamily handed them comic, opened to the last page, and then they all understood why An was assuring a comic book character that she would go to the Prom with her boyfriend.

. . .

"…Well that explains the comic book Mom slipped into the album the page before the Prom pictures." April said plainly, it had confused her when she had been searching for her parents' prom pictures when she saw the random old comic book slipped in the page before the prom pics, but she figured that since this was an album that her mom had made, that she might have just shoved it in there while she had been working on it and forgot about it. (April found some old food in between her parent's wedding pictures and her baby pictures, and some bits of metal and plumbing too, oddly enough. Jay explained to her later that her mom had some… odd food cravings while she was pregnant with her.)

"Wow, you got a comic book writer to write a note to Mom?" Sheldon asked, his eyes wide and sparkling with admiration.

"Nah, Shelly, I whited out the real text and wrote that in myself." Jay explained while ruffling his son's blonde locks, "But I bought an extra issue of that comic so your mom could read the real text too."

"I still liked yours better." An said warmly as she gave him a side hug, making him flush.

. . .

*(The juiciness begins! :D ) Larie, Conner and Pat were walking to class together, pleased that Jay's and Nate's tactics had worked out well for them, when they heard moans from the janitor's closet, Patrick smirked and held out his hand while holding up a sign that said, 'Told ya they'd do it in the janitor's closet. Five bucks, pay up! '

Larie and Conner muttered curses as they reached into their back pockets, pulled out their wallets and both slammed five bucks in his outreached hand.

"Dammit, Jay, why you couldn't have done it in the nurses office?" Larie grumbled.

"Or the friggin gym supply closet…" Conner groaned.

Patrick slipped the two fives into his pocket and shrugged with a triumphant smirk on his face.*

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Larie and Ann

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Ann began spinning her locker combo as she was getting ready to head home and get started on her homework.

She sighed, she was hoping that Larie would ask her to Prom today, like Nate and Jay had done with their girlfriends, but perhaps he would ask later when he arrived at her house for her grandfather's birthday party (her grandfather insisted he come), since he was staying after school to finish a metal workshop group project with Conner and a few other guys from his class.

When she opened her locker, she found an envelope with her name on it, she looked at it, confused, she hadn't seen it earlier when she had collected her textbook for her final class of the day while chatting with Larie. She figured that since it was in Larie's handwriting (hard not to recognize his messy scrawl) that he slipped it in while she had praised Nate and Jay for coming up with such sweet ways to ask their girlfriends to the Prom while they were passing them on their way to class.

But why would Larie leave an envelope in her locker? She pondered this as she gently pulled it open and carefully unfolded the letter within.

It was covered in equations, names of elements from the periodic table, titles of famous classics that they had read together along with sets of numbers besides it and more with Larie's name on the bottom of the page.

At first she was confused, what was this? A puzzle?

She paused then perked up, it wasn't a puzzle, but a code. A code that needed deciphering. Oh, how thrilling!

Her eyes lit up as she read it, the gears in her mind spinning rapidly as she translated the letter, a warm smile curling up her reddening cheeks when she finally decoded it. She read it a few more times before happily pulling it close to her chest, joy and glee radiating off of her as she headed to the metal workshop with a skip in her step.

When she finally arrived and knocked on the door, Conner opened the door, his welding mask resting above his face and on the rim of his hat and looking surprised to see her there, (and to see her so friggin' happy), while revealing several teens welding something further in the classroom, their faces hidden behind their masks, although she could spot Larie with ease since he had his back facing the door, his shaggy blue hair being a dead give away.

"Excuse me for interrupting, Conner," Ann said politely, "But could I borrow Larie from you gentlemen for a moment?" He smirked and put a hand close to his mouth to amplify his voice as he called out, "Larie! Your girl's here!" Everyone stopped working, turned to the doorway and removed their masks, including Larie, who was a bit surprised to see her in the doorway. He walked over to her, "Everything okay, Muffin?" he asked. Ann pulled him into a long kiss, making his classmates start hooting and hollering for him, Ann pulled away, overjoyed as she held up the letter to him, not that he was really paying that much attention to the letter or his classmates, he was too busy enjoying his kiss high, "Larie Kanker, this is the sweetest, most sincere and most romantic invitation I have ever received in my entire life!" She squealed before wrapping her arms around him in a tight hug, "You even wrote it in iambic pentameter!" she gushed before she began covering his face in kisses, making his goofy grin grow, his tongue lolling out of his mouth enough to see the silver stud as his whole body begin to float off the ground.

"I'll take it you two are going to Prom together?" Conner chuckled.

Ann smiled at him vibrantly and nodded happily in agreement before resuming Larie's lipstick facial.

. . .

"So not only did you write your invitation in code…" Terry began.

"But you also wrote it in iambic pentameter?" Larry finished.

"Yup, totally worth the week and a half it took to write that." Larie said proudly while Ann wrapped her arms around one of his and leaned her head against his shoulder with a loving smile on her face.

"It certainly is very impressive, Father." Allbert said, storing his father's tactic away for future use. (Author: what? He's Larie's son)

Mildred and Emma looked down at their food, a little upset, "We couldn't read it when we found it in the album, Allbert had to decipher it for us." Mildred murmured, ashamed. Emma's eyes began to water and her lower lip began to quiver. Larie scooped his little girls up into his lap and said, "Would you two like me teach you two how to read the code tomorrow?" His daughters smiled and nodded before giving their father a big hug that he happily returned.

. . .

*(I couldn't resist! I mean, come on, it's Larie!) Conner led the other welders out of the school to grab something to eat and to 'give the love birds some time alone.'

But when they got back, there were fire trucks and police cars and even an ambulance in the front of the school, where an officer was talking to Double-N and Larie, who sat together on one of the steps up to the school, wrapped up in a trauma blanket. Conner and his classmates raced towards them, "What happened?" he asked when he finally reached them.

"One of the gas pipes in the workshop was leaking," Larie explained as he thumbed back to the direction of the workshop, "The baseball team was practicing and a stray ball crashed through the window and broke one of the lights near the faulty pipe and BOOM!" he cried as he flung his arms out, revealing a bandage on his right arm, forcing him to briefly explain that he got hit by some broken glass on the explosion. He then pulled his arms back into the blanket and grabbed Ann's hands, "We're okay though, and so is the project." The others sighed in relief, although if it was because everyone was okay or that their project came out in one piece was unclear.

"Yeah," the officer said as he tucked his notebook into his back pocket as he passed them, explaining that, "The fire department couldn't see anything from all the smoke, but this young lady cried out and helped them locate them."

A goofy smile curled up Larie's cheeks, "Yeah, she did." He murmured dreamily.

Double-N flushed and pouted at him, obviously embarrassed, making him smile apologetically at her before telling his classmates that they were told that they could all go home and that the project's deadline had been extended for them, since they couldn't work while they were making repairs on the room and that the teacher would let them know next class what they'd be doing in the mean time. He then got up and led his girlfriend inside so they could gather their belongings before heading home, Conner tapped on his phone with his thumbs as he did.

Larie's phone buzzed, surprising them, he apologized to Double-N before he glanced at the message his friend sent him:

'ya better not have fucked on our project.'

Larie smirked and pressed a few buttons and sent his reply then shoved his phone into his pocket and wrapped his arm around his girlfriend and gave her a kiss as they disappeared inside.

Conner looked at his phone and snickered as he read:

'nope, behind it.' *

.

Conner and Rachel

.

Rachel glared at the computer monitor in front of her, she had been typing up a paper she had written about 'To Kill A Mockingbird' for her English class (since her teacher insisted that they type all of their papers), it was taking her forever to do since she typed with only two fingers and the program she was using kept trying to correct her spelling and grammar. She had gotten a half of a page done when the screen went black… along with the rest of the screens and all lights in the classroom and all the lights in the hallway.

Rachel felt fury flood her veins, her handwritten paper was eight pages long, two more then was required for the paper, and she had only managed to type one page of it and she had gotten half of the page on the screen filled. And now all her efforts were gone. She banged on the table with her fists, "ACCURSED MACHINE! GIVE RACHEL BACK HER TIME AND HER EFFORTS OR RACHEL WILL GET HER BEATING STICK!"

"Ya yelling at yer phone again, Rach?" a familiar male voice asked with a chuckle. Rachel turned to see Conner in the doorway of the dark classroom, looking amused.

She flushed, while she'd had trouble with her new cell phone, she constantly went to Conner for help. Not that her friends hadn't offered to help her or anything, but she preferred him teaching her how to operate her phone… Partially because when she asked where the dial was on this phone, he didn't look shocked nor did he laugh, but it was mainly because she liked how he explained things, be it how to work her cell phone or what an expression meant or why people did certain things…

"Rach?" he called again, pulling her out of her thoughts, "No, Cowpoke Conner, the Daughter of a Shepherd was scolding this machine." She clarified, poking the computer screen. "Rachel was typing up her paper on this infernal thing-a-ma-jig and it vanished into darkness."

"Yeah, well, that's what happens when the power goes out in the school." Conner explained as he lowered himself into the seat beside her, "Did you save it?"

"That's what Rachel has been trying to do, but it does not respond. But Rachel can still save it, yes?" Conner looked at her sympathetically and shook his head, "It's gone, Rach, I'm sorry."

Rachel scowled at the computer and punched the monitor in, "POACHER!" She cried, leaving a cracked hole in the screen. Conner looked at the glaring hole in the computer and the enraged Rachel and back again, then he clapped his hands and said, "Well, I have a computer at my house, why don't I help you type up your paper and we can print it out there?"

Rachel brightened, grateful that he would help her with her paper and that she could learn how to use this frustrating device better.

Speaking of frustrating…

"Cowpoke Conner, can the Daughter of a Shepherd ask you a question?"

Conner smiled at her, "Ya just did, so I think you can." He replied, his joke soaring over her head.

"Why do boys have to go to such lengths to ask girls to this Prom dance?" Rachel asked him. Conner leaned back in his chair, his fingers weaved behind his head to keep his hat from falling off his head, "Rach, this dance is the last school dance we'll ever have in high school, it's basically a milestone in our lives. Prom the last dance we have as teenagers, our last night as crazy teenagers, with no regrets and no worries. After this, we graduate, we go to college, we get real jobs, we move, we get married, we have kids, we'll have responsibilities. That's why everyone makes such a big deal about it, they want their last hoorah as crazy kids to be something they can look back on and smile." Conner then righted his chair, "that answer your question?"

"Yes, thank you, Cowpoke Conner." Rachel said cheerfully, pleased that she now understood what the big deal was.

"Hey, Rach, can I ask you something?" Conner suddenly asked her, acting a little anxious all of a sudden.

"Of course, Cowpoke Conner, ask the Daughter of a Shepherd whatever you desire!" Rachel urged. He fidgeted a moment, as if gathering the courage to speak before saying, "You wanna go with me?"

Rachel looked at him for a moment, trying to figure out if he really just asked her to Prom or not.

"Uh, forget I said any-" Conner began as he leapt to his feet, only for Rachel to grab his arm and shout, "COWPOKE CONNER, RACHEL WILL NEED ASSISTANCE FROM HER FRIENDS TO GET READY TO GO TO THIS PROM DANCE WITH YOU, YES? HOW DOES ONE DO THAT 'GROUP MESSAGE' THING YOU SPOKE OF BEFORE?!" Conner smiled and collapsed back into his seat as he leaned over and began instructing her how to do a group message, then they gathered their things and walked out to Conner's truck.

"Can I ask you something else, Rach?"

"Certainly, Cowpoke-Conner."

"If my mom asks, can you tell her that I did something flashy to ask you to Prom, okay?"

"You can count on the Daughter of A Shepherd!" She said, puffing out her chest with determination.

. . .

Rick, Ralph and Connie looked at their parents, a little underwhelmed by the way their father had asked their mom to prom, especially after all the ways their friends' dads' had done it, but honestly, it fit their parents and, in a way, it was still quite sweet.

"Well," Conner's mother said, "That story makes more sense then what Rachel told me..."

That got her grandkids' attention, "Grandmama, could you please tell Rick what Mama did tell you Papa did to ask her to the Prom?" Rick asked her, his younger siblings' eyes wide in anticipation.

"She said your daddy wrestled pigs for three hours while wearing a dead fish necklace around his neck and a wheel of cheese on his head before he asked her." Their grandma replied, making the whole room crack up and making Rachel flush and shrug at her husband as he gave her a flat look, then he shook his head, face palmed, then murmured, "well, that explains the weird looks I got from Ma and Pop whenever Prom came up."

"Mama, why did you tell Grandmama such a strange tale?" Ralph asked.

"Because Papa told Mama to tell Grandmama that he asked her to the Prom dance in a flashy way, so Mama made up a story about how Papa did as most men in the old country did when inviting a woman to a festivity." Rachel explained sheepishly.

"Connie thinks Mama made up a good story." Connie said, looking at her parents warmly, "And Connie thinks Papa's real way to ask Mama to Prom was sweet too." Conner scooped his youngest up off the floor and gave her a peck on the cheek before handing her over to her mother, who snuggled her baby girl.

Rick looked at Tee and Patrick, "You two still haven't told us how you two got your wives to go with you." He observed.

Tee rubbed the back of his head, not really making eye contact with anyone in the room, "Anny and I went on a special date and I asked her then." He explained briefly. Andy, Mia and Tia looked at each other and silently agreed to let him pass with this crappy lie as long as he told them what he really did later.

. . .

.

Tee and Anny

.

*Anny followed Tee blindly into the unknown. Normally if Tee'd come to her with a blindfold and ask her to put it on so he could take her somewhere nice for their date, she'd normally just say that she wasn't putting on that stupid thing, but since Prom was coming up, she assumed that he was going to surprise her in some way, shape or form, so she calmly agreed.

She felt unsteady on her feet as he lead the way, the ground was bumpy and she nearly tripped forward on something long and firm on the ground and landed on him a few times, luckily Tee managed to catch her before they both got hurt. Judging by the feel of the terrain and the smell of dirt and pine needles, she figured they were in the forest near the cul-de-sac, she was irked, but she'd seen An and Double-N duck into the woods with their boyfriends from time to time, so maybe there was some place in here that the Kanker brothers had found that was perfect for romantic dates.

After what felt like forever, she felt the air become cooler, the air seem stale and heard their footsteps echo, which was strange, but then again, so was wandering around the forest with a blindfold on for her and Tee's romantic date.

Finally, Tee removed the blindfold, making Anny blink for a moment, readying herself to adjust to the light, only for her jaw to drop once she had done so.

They were inside a nice sized cave, where Tee had set up lanterns on a small pic-nic blanket, where a basket laid and angled flashlights to hit the many crystals that hung from the ceiling and from the walls, reflecting the light and making the cave nicely lit.

"Whoa." Anny murmured.

"Nice right?" Tee chuckled.

"Where did you even find this place?" she asked, "I've lived here all my life and I thought me, An and Double-N had seen every inch of the forest."

"How did you know we came through the forest?" Tee asked, sounding a little concerned.

"Cause there aren't many places around here that smell like pine needles and dirt." Anny chuckled. Tee seemed relieved that she had figured it out instead of peaking then said, "Yeah, well, my brothers and I wandered around the forest looking for our own special places to be alone. Since we share a room and the trailer's pretty small, we figured we should each pick a place outside in case we really needed to get away from each other." He explained. "This place," he said, gesturing to the cave around them, "Is mine."

"So, you got the good one?" Anny teased. Tee chuckled, "I guess so, never been to Jay or Larie's. But, this place is perfect so I never really had the need to. I mean, if it was raining or snowing or something, I wouldn't get wet or cold like those two would, and I had a space where I could put my shit without worrying about anyone messing with it or taking it or whatever."

"Makes sense." Anny agreed, feeling a little bad for her boyfriend, even though she had a sibling too, her family was fortunate enough to have a three bedroom house, so she and her sister didn't have to share a room, allowing the two to have their own separate spaces, although, back when she was younger she would have loved to share a room with her awesome big sis, but as time passed, she was grateful that she had her own room to herself. Tee didn't have that, it was like he had said, he shared a tiny bedroom with his brothers and when they were younger, they really didn't have any friends, so it wasn't like if they got into a fight and ran out of their trailer that they could run to a friend's house like Anny had been able to. So Anny was grateful that he had this place growing up, it probably saved him (or his brothers) a few times over the years.

"So, ya hungry?" Tee finally asked, indicating the basket, Anny smiled at him, "Starved." She replied as they both took a seat on the blanket and ate.

After they ate, Tee fidgeted in his seat while Anny admired the way the light made the crystals sparkle around them. "Hey Anny?"

"Yeah, Tee?"

"Ya… umm, wANna go to PRom with Me?" he asked, his voice squeaking a bit as he said 'wanna', 'prom' and 'me'. Anny smiled at him as he flushed and bit his lip and seemed to be scolding himself, thinking it was cute how nervous he was, also trying not to laugh at how high his voice had gotten, since he'd always had such a low voice, and said, "No shit." And pulled him into a kiss that quickly turned into a make out session and then second base.

They left the cave holding hands and smiling with flushed faces, pleased that they had their beloved as their date for Prom.*

.

Patrick and Jenny

.

Night had fallen and Jenny sat on her bed, one of the mix CDs Pat had given her playing rock music beside her on her CD player. She sighed and reached for a nearby pillow to smush over her face while she groaned.

All of her other friends' boyfriends asked them to Prom (they'd texted each other, setting up days where they could all go shopping for more make up, magazines (hair and make up guides) accessories and for Rachel's stuff since she had nothing prepared for the dance), yet it seemed to be the furthest thing from Pat's mind. She wondered if it was because he had been homeschooled for most of his life that he was clueless about school dances, after all, Patrick had no idea what to do for that Halloween dance earlier in the school year, she had to help him quickly scrounge up a costume as well as make her own in two days before it happened. (* and then they ended up being transformed into their costumes while fighting off their zombie classmates until Karen had managed to do that counter spell.*) She squeezed her pillow to her chest, silently praying that he wasn't one of those guys who wasn't into going to the prom, because she really wanted to go with him.

Then she heard something from her window. It was a soft sound, but it was hard to tell if it was just soft or that she was just barely able to hear it with the music she already had on. She shut it off and scurried to the window to see Pat standing below, holding a guitar and she could hear muffled singing through the glass. She unlocked her window and practically flung the window open, only to smile warmly down at him, her hands propping up her head the loving smile on her face as she listened to the song that only she could hear from a voice that made her feel warm and tingly all over. She had never heard the songs he was singing to her, and she knew a lot of songs, it wasn't until he sang 'will you go to Prom with me, Jenny' that she realized that he actually wrote the song he was serenading her with, making her love the private concert her boyfriend was giving her even more.

When he finished, she clapped for him, encouraging him to bow and make his girlfriend giggle.

He then cupped his hands around his mouth, 'Can I come up?' he asked her. Jenny opened her mouth to agree, only for her to pause, her parents were home and she doubted her dad would be okay with having her boyfriend up in her room in general, let alone after dark. "My Dad wouldn't really like that, Pat…" she whispered down to him, he pouted a bit, making her bite her lip, she could never resist that face… She sighed, "fine, just for a little bit, okay?" He gave her a vibrant smile, slid the guitar around so it sat on his back then bounced off the tree by her window then jumped off of her house, and continued until he got to her window and sat down on her window ledge, giving her a kiss and a hug that she happily returned. 'So you wanna go to Prom with me, Jenny?' he asked her again. She pulled him into another hug, "Yeah, Pat, I really do." She said softly as she snuggled deeper into his embrace.

Then her dad knocked on her bedroom door, "Jenny? Can I talk to you for a second?" Patrick and Jenny quickly let go and Pat dove to the floor so he was lying down next to her bed, letting it hide him and the guitar on his back as her dad opened the door. "Yeah Dad?" she replied, trying to play it cool.

"I heard some guitar music from downstairs, you mind turning your music down a bit?"

"Oh, yeah, sure, I can do that, sorry for bothering you." Jenny said quickly, then gave him a big grin. Jenny's dad looked at her funny for a moment before saying, "Okay then, I'm going to bed, night, Sweetie."

"Night, Dad." She said, then her dad closed the door.

Patrick sat up and let out a silent sigh of relief before letting his head fall on her bed spread and Jenny flopped down on her bed, grateful that she was the only one who could hear him.

. . .

Penny looked at her parents, her hands angling Roxy so she could 'see' them too.

"You serenaded her? That's so sweet!" Roxy exclaimed, Penny smiling and nodding in approval, a bright twinkle of admiration in her eyes that made Ralph poke Cole for a pen and write down 'Learn how to play the guitar, yes?' on his arm, then pull down his sleeve to hide it before Patrick could notice.

Jenny's dad was less touched by his son-in-law's 'sweet serenade', "You left right after that though, right Patrick?" he asked darkly.

Patrick and Jenny nodded vigorously, giving him big guilty smiles.

. . .

*Conner dropped Rachel off at her house at 11pm, it had taken forever to do that stupid paper, not because he was a slow typer or the fact that he had to help her bullshit another two pages for that paper, but because his mom would not. Leave. Them. Alone.

After getting a kiss from her and dreamily watching her skip into her house, calling out to her family and eager to tell them the good news about her going to a school dance with a date. Conner then pulled out of her driveway and began driving around the circle of the cul-de-sac, only to see Patrick, who had a guitar strapped to his back and his clothes rumpled, slamming his fists against the roof of his car, which was parked beside Nate's house, and his lipstick covered face pressed against the driver's side window.

Conner drove up beside him, making him jump and panic until he could see that it was his friend, Conner then lowered the window and leaned his head out of the car, "Car trouble?" he teased. Patrick flipped him the bird, after Conner laughed at his reaction, he pointed at him and pretended to write something, "You want something to write on?" he guessed. Patrick nodded.

He turned on the inside light and glanced around his car until he found a slightly greasy napkin and a pen and handed it to him.

'Thanks' he scribbled, then he wrote, 'I think I left my keys at Jenny's.'

"I'll guess ya can't go back and get 'um?" he replied. Patrick nodded, irritated.

"Hop in, I'll give ya a ride home, if you can't get in to your house, you can stay at my place tonight." Patrick gave a nod in thanks and hopped into his truck.

Conner then quickly drove out of the cul-de-sac, hoping that Jenny's dad didn't spot them driving away.*

.

(End of Montage)

.

. . .

Jasmine and Stella looked at their parents, curious.

"What about you, Dad?" Jasmine asked, "I know you and Mom weren't old enough to go to that Prom, you ended up there anyway, but how did you ask her to your Prom?"

"Your mom was sick so I took care of her and left a prom dress that your Aunt An and your friends' moms picked out for me," the mothers of the cul-de-sac looked at him with narrowed eyes, waiting, so he added, "That I left in the black bag they gave it to me in and did not look nor tamper with it!" The mothers then smiled pleasantly before turning back to their husbands and resumed cuddling with them, recalling how sweet their invitations to Prom were as he continued to explain that, "I left the covered dress along with a note asking if she'd like to go with me."

"That's so sweet, Daddy!" Stella blurted, then she blushed, embarrassed by her outburst. Emma and Connie tugged on their parent's shirts and pointed at their friend, silently asking if they could please be let down. Rachel put Connie down and Larie put Emma and Mildred down and all three girls sat down with the other kids, Emma and Connie telling Stella that, "it's okay, it is very sweet, there is no need to feel embarrassed."

"Anyway, you got that part outta the way, now what happened that night?" Andy demanded to know, eagerness bright in the children's eyes.

"Actually Andy, we saw that Frank Dearly guy before Prom." His dad informed him, "But if you want to skip over a crucial part of the story…"

Sheldon and Allbert slapped their hands over Andy's mouth, "No!" Sheldon yelped.

"Our apologies, Uncle Tee, but we would like to hear that part of the story as well, if you would please." Allbert humbly asked while Andy scowled at them and muttered something unintelligible, most likely a threat or a smart remark.

Tee smirked and nodded, "So, a week before Prom, we finally went to go rent some tuxes…"

. . .

Tee, Larie, Jay, Conner, Patrick and Nate all walked with their mothers to the tuxedo rental place in the mall, which was a weird place to have it, but hey, it was close by and it meant that, not only could they spend less time with their (at the moment) nit-picky mothers, but they had multiple excuses handy for if they needed a quick get away (Sam was on call, if they texted him, he was to urge Jamie and An to suggest a 'quick' trip at the mall for anything else they might need for the Prom and then they could use their girlfriends' presences as really good reasons to ditch their moms for a bit)

Their mothers and the girls had exchanged information and the mothers were armed with pictures of the girls' dresses (they didn't let any of the guys see them) and their son(s) measurements, so shortly after arriving, they told the boys to go grab some lunch and that by the time they returned, that there would be suits for them to try on.

They didn't need to be told twice as they scurried out of the shop, catching the women cornering a sales clerk out of the corner of their eyes before picking up their paces, not wanting to see the clerk be bombarded with photos and measurements.

After eating a decent lunch (they were eating at a mall) they were headed back to the shop when an older man stopped them with a question, "Excuse me, young men, would you be interested in a well paying job?" They stopped and turned, curious. The man wore a nice three piece suit, that looked way nicer and fancier then the ones in the shop they were going to meet their moms in to try tuxes on. He had one gloved hand out and curled up at his chest, while the other was tucked between his back and his jacket. His hair was dark, but thinning at the top, his face was well-shaved, and his shoes were shining. He seemed friendly and cheerful but kept a polite distance from them.

The guys looked at each other, a little torn…

While normally they'd ignore these kinds of things, over the past week, they'd learned that this dance was probably the most expensive thing they'd ever done. They each had to pay for two tickets (since they knew the girls would have to probably pay for more things then they would and they wanted to be gentlemen), the corsages for the girls, the stupid fancy shoes they had to get, then there were these tuxes and they were looking into alternatives for rides to the prom (limos were way outta their price range)…

All in all, well paying jobs sounded pretty good right about now… and the guy, while a bit out of place here offering jobs at the mall, seemed meeker and more considerate then most of the recruiters that they'd encountered at the mall, so, after a moment to think about it and discussing it amongst themselves, they agreed that they saw no harm in simply hearing the guy out and at least if their moms were mad at them for being late, they'd have a reasonable excuse as to why.

"Depends." Tee said cautiously, "Who are you and what's the job?"

"Oh! Well, my name is Frank Dearly. I design suits and Tuxedoes for formal occasions." He handed them business cards with his name, a number that seemed to be written in a fancy old fashioned cursive font along with a rough sketch of a suit, "I am in need some models for my new Tuxedo Line, after all, Prom is coming up and I could use the business." He said. The boys nodded in understanding as the man went on to say, "Are you young men going to Prom?" They nodded. "Well, how about this, if you could just wear my suits for a few hours and have your pictures taken so I can start spreading the word, I'll not only pay you handsomely, but you can keep the suits as well."

The guys brightened, getting free hand tailored tuxedos and getting paid to just stand around and be awesome, what could be better?

"I'll even lend you my limo for your Prom night."

Well, that answered that.

But, Tee had a bad feeling about this offer, it just seemed too good to be true, he glanced over and saw that Conner and Nate looked hesitant as well, while his brothers and Patrick looked excited about the perks of this job, their eyes wide at the thought of impressing their girlfriends with their designer threads and a limo waiting for them all.

"When would you need us?" Jay eagerly asked, Tee elbowed him, making him wince in pain and scowl at his older brother.

"Oh, this upcoming Saturday, in the evening." Mr. Dearly replied cheerfully. The smiles slid off their faces. And they looked at each other, feeling guilty and unsure how to break the news.

"Is something wrong?" Mr. Dearly asked.

"We're really sorry, Sir," Nate said, his voice sincere and apologetic, "But that is the night of our Prom and we already promised our girlfriends we'd take them."

The man's eye twitched a bit, but his smile never faltered, "Oh, I see, well, perhaps next year! In the meantime, I do hope you all have fun then!"

The boys gave him nervous smiles as they briskly walked towards the tux rental place, their paces increasing as they further distanced themselves from Mr. Dearly.

When they finally got inside, they were scolded for making their mothers wait, so they explained their circumstances, although, once they heard the man's name, their mothers and the clerk were hysterical, grabbing them and shaking them

"YOU MEAN TO TELL US YOU HAD A CHANCE TO MODEL SUITS BY FRANK DEARLY, ONE OF THE BEST SUIT DESIGNERS OF OUR ERA AND GET A LIMO TO TAKE YOUR GIRLFRIENDS IN AND YOU TURNED IT DOWN?!" Bethany demanded as she shook her boys by their shirt collars like a dog would shake a rag doll.

Patrick spotted a pen and a sheet of paper while he was being shook and grabbed it and wrote as if his life depended on it, then held it up to his mother's face.

"The night of the photo shoot is the same night as Prom, and while the free suits and limo would have been awesome, we couldn't hurt the girls by not taking them to Prom like we said we would." His mother read.

The other mothers stopped flipping out and looked at their boys plainly for a moment before smiling at them proudly, letting them go and shoving the tuxes into their arms, "Smart choice, boys." Conner's mom purred.

"Yes, cause those girls would have been really upset if you didn't show up like you said you would." Nate's mom informed them. Then all four mothers said, "You never mess with a girl on her Prom Night." In a creepy unison that made the six boys wish they had lied and said that there had been long lines at the food court instead of telling them the truth. The mothers then shoved the boys into dressing rooms to change, where they also texted Patrick a quick 'thanks' for quickly explaining why they turned down what turned out to be a much bigger deal then they had thought it was and saving them all from being mauled by their own mothers.

After going through several tuxedos before each boy found one that all four mothers and the clerks in the store approved of and got vests that matched the colors of their girlfriends' dresses, they paid for their tuxedos and left with their mothers, noting that Mr. Dearly had left his spot as they left the mall.

.

.

.

Finally, after a long week of anticipation and prep, it was the day of Prom.

They were all going to meet at Karen's house, the boys were told to arrive at 6:30 (the girls had arrived with all of their things early that morning and had been readying themselves.)

The guys each arrived at Karen's front yard at 6:25 with packaged corsages in their hands, the tickets and their IDs * (and, for some, condoms) * in their back pockets and their families in tow, their mothers were getting emotional as they complimented them all for looking so grown up and handsome, holding their cameras close to their chests as if their lives depended on them.

Nate and Conner's moms were on the verge of breaking down into tears, with the other mothers and Gladys consoling them and Gladys telling them to 'wait until they're on their way to the dance before breaking down, or you won't have as many good pictures.'

Tee wore a black tux with a golden vest and a black tie and he had his hair styled so his eyes were visible to the world, despite his pleads to his mother not to, but since neither she nor Gladys had been in an easy going mood since they woke the male Kankers up at the crack of dawn, Tee decided to ask Anny once they were on the way if she could help him shift his hair back over his eyes, he had a feeling that she wouldn't let him do so tonight, but he figured he would at least ask. He held a red rose corsage with light pink ranunculus flowers in a clear, plastic container.

Larie wore a black suit with a vest that was brick red and a black tie, he felt kind of stupid, but due to his scar and his request to keep his missing eye a secret from Ann's family, Bethany and Gladys let him keep his hair over his bad eye, but only on the condition that it was properly combed and styled so it would look less like he was hiding it and more like he was trying to be fashionable. He had a blue iris corsage accented with purple wax flowers ready for his Muffin in his hands.

Jay wore a white suit with a green vest and a golden yellow tie, his long hair was pulled back into a ponytail by Bethany, even though he insisted he could do it on his own, she said she wanted to do it, telling him that she used to do it with his mother's hair and that she could make it look nice and neat for An, so he let her do his hair. He smiled at the daffodil and clover corsage he got for An and couldn't wait to see the look on her face when she saw the lovely corsage he had gotten for her.

Nate wore a white suit with a pink vest and a hot pink tie, feeling a little embarrassed to be wearing so much pink to his prom, not because he felt that the color emasculated him, but more because his mom was fussing over how 'sweet' he looked in the suit before they walked out to meet the others, luckily his dad got her to stop calling him that before they left or his friends would tease him mercilessly. A pink rose and baby's breath corsage was clutched tightly in his hands.

Conner wore a black suit, a red vest, his granddad's old lucky onyx stone bolo tie (his granddad sent it up for him to wear, saying he was so pleased to have a man in the family wear it to such a special occasion, Conner hadn't wanted to put it on, but his mom practically strangled him with it to put it on then nearly strangled him again while putting it on him) and his cowboy hat, without his bandana, but he had barely managed to get out of the house at the last minute with everything he needed, hiding the hat from his mother until they were in the car and halfway here, smiling as his mother groaned in dismay that his nicely styled hair was now covered and that he was going to Prom with it, but since he had worn the bolo tie, she decided to let him wear the hat. Didn't stop her from telling him how humiliated he'd be when his kids looked through old photos of him and saw him wearing that hat. Conner bit his lip so he wouldn't tell her that if he was humiliated when his kids saw his Prom pictures, it would probably be because of the tie. He held a the purple lily corsage with yellow orange lantana flowers as an accent in his hands, silently praying that none of the flowers he had gotten her had a meaning that could bite him in the rear.

Patrick wore a black suit, a black top hat (Author's Note: He's wearing the one he actually owns, I mentioned it in Chapter 6), a white vest and a red tie, 'A classic look' his mom had called it, since his jacket had no real pockets (he was the only one among them whose jacket didn't have real pockets) and he had only one back pocket on his pants, he kept a small note pad with a pen tucked in his cap, his hair styled underneath. He had the white orchid corsage with wild blue flax flowers as an accent under his arm, knowing that orchids liked humidity and heat, so he figured if he was sweating due to nerves, at least the flower would be prettier.

Patrick slipped his hand under his hat and pulled out a notepad and scribbled, 'Five bucks says Conner's mom starts crying first.'

"I wouldn't take that bet, my Ma already cried three times today, and that was just seeing me in my suit." Conner warned the others with a chuckle as he unconsciously fiddled with his tie.

"I already lost five bucks to you, so I'll just stick to laughing at the loser, thanks." Larie replied, his hands shaking a bit.

"What did you bet on?" Jay asked him, his curiosity distracting him from his nerves.

"Nothing!" Conner and Larie replied quickly with Patrick shaking his head and waving his arms as if to say the same thing. While Jay prodded them for information, Nate kept looking at his watch and biting his lip, anxiously waiting for them to be allowed inside to see their girlfriends.

"How much longer?" Tee asked him.

"One minute and fifty two seconds more, Dude." Nate informed him.

"So, forever?" Tee joked. The two chuckled nervously while the others were goofing off, their parents smiling knowingly at them, probably reminiscing about their own proms for a moment while they watched their son(s) (and grandsons in Gladys' case) fidget nervously while trying to act as if nothing was wrong.

Finally, it was 6:30 and they could finally knock on the door…

Only for the girls parents and families (Ann's aunts, Tiffany, Luca, Sam and Rachel's grandparents) and Jamie's family to flood out and join the rest of them on the lawn, the mothers (and other women there except for Rachel's mother and grandmother) all holding their cameras with large, eager smiles on their faces and bouncing on their toes, excited.

But, then again, once the guys saw their girlfriends inside, smiling and waving at them from the staircase, they were pretty excited too.

Their faces were red and goofy smiles lifted up their cheeks and their eyes grew wide and large. Tee's jaw dropped, Larie's tongue came lolling out of his mouth, Jay's hair began spinning like a helicopter blade, Nate began drooling a little bit, Pat was silently stammering, and steam leaked from Conner's ears.

Karen slipped out first, wearing a slinky pink dress with one sleeve and one dark pink strap from underneath the dress and a slit that ended a few inches above her knee, silver bangles jingled on her wrists and silver and crystal jewelry hung from her neck and ears. Her make up was a bit thick, but well applied so it was difficult for the boys to tell, and her long red hair was pulled back into a low ponytail and wore pink heels that matched her dress. She held a pink rose boutonniere and gave Nate a flirty grin that made him start drooling more as she came over.

Karen closed Nate's mouth, stopping his saliva from sliding out of his mouth and chuckled as he wiped at his suit, which was luckily dry. "You okay?" she asked, laughter still present in her voice. "Yeah, thanks, Karen." He said, a little embarrassed.

Rachel didn't slip out like Karen, it was more like she had been shoved out. (Jenny and Anny shoved her, Rachel had a feeling that she'd have trouble when it was time to reveal herself to Conner, so Jenny and Anny promised to help her if that happened.) She wore a form-fitting red dress that had sleeves that ended at her elbows and a frilly skirt that went down to her ankles. Her blue hair was curled so it almost matched the skirt of her gown and she had a warm looking fur draped over her shoulders, her Nana's Lucky Ferret, almost like a wrap. Her make up was striking, with bold colors, although her lips, which were a deep shade of red, caught the most attention and she wore red flats (she tried heels, she ended up throwing them out of the window at the department store and got the rest of them thrown out for it) on her feet. She was obviously nervous, she clutched a purple lily boutonniere close to her chest, just in front of her Mama's bronze Medallion of Merriment. She nervously shuffled towards Conner, flustered and having difficulties looking him in the eye, making the steam hiss out of his ears and pushing his hat up his head a bit.

Rachel pushed Conner's hat back down on his head as he finally started to cool down, "Thanks." He squeaked back. Rachel looked at his tie, impressed, "This is an intriguing thing-a-ma-jig, what is it called?" Conner then informed her that it was a bolo tie and showed her how he got it on, flushing as she fiddled with it, fascinated.

Jenny skipped out of the house, wearing a white, off-the shoulder gown that captured her curves perfectly, her feet encased in white heels. Her make up was made up of light colors and she had pearls around her neck and wrist and a white orchid boutonniere in her hands. Her wild, curly hair was pulled back into a messy bun of glimmering black waves (which was as straight as she could get her hair). She gave Pat a jolly grin and raced over to him and giggled as his rambling sped up due to getting a better view of his girlfriend.

Patrick continued to babble until Jenny lightly pinched his lips with her fingers, she waited for a moment, then let go. He mouthed a single word then stopped, he was rewarded with a kiss on the cheek. His goofy grin curled further up his face as Jenny giggled at his expression and pulled him into a hug that he happily returned.

Anny was the next one out of the house, her pink hair was pulled back into a bun with golden hair pins with her bangs cascading down the side of her face. Her dress was golden and sparkled in the light, it had a white strip of fabric that extended from her chest and went around her arms. She wore a gold necklace with a pink gem in it, larger gold hoops hung from her ears and around her wrists, her nails were long and golden with little red gems in the middle. Her make-up was made up of warm colors and she had gold flats on (so she wouldn't loom over her date). She chuckled as Tee's jaw slowly lowered further towards the ground as she strutted towards him, a red rose boutonniere in her well-manicured hands.

Anny smirked as she pushed his jaw up with her fingers, being careful not to stab him with her elongated fingernails as she did so, then purred, "I guess you like what you see?" Tee pulled himself together and smirked back, "Always." He replied coolly.

Ann was right behind her pink haired friend, wearing a dark purple dress with a poofy skirt and rustic red ribbon that separated the poofy skirt into sections. Her locket with the stud arrow going through it hung around her neck and she wore lavender heels. Her long black hair was pulled back into a large bun that was held back with braids that her bangs had been braided into. A brick red wrap hung around her shoulders and her make up was made up of rustic shades she held a Iris boutonniere in her lavender gloved hands. She smiled shyly as she seemed to glide towards Larie, whose tongue slid further out of his mouth as she came closer, his sliver stud gleaming in the sunlight.

Ann poked his nose and his tongue retracted back into his mouth, "Lookin' good Muffin…" he finally managed. She chuckled and gently held his head in her hands, making his goofy grin grow as she said, "Thank you, Larie, you look quite dashing yourself."

An was the last one out, she bounded out of the house with a large smile on her face and her eyes gleaming with glee when she spotted her beloved boyfriend. Her gown had a green top with spaghetti straps and a black belt around her middle with a striped skirt. Her face was made up in light, natural colors, her hair was clean and in its now usual cute short style. Her grandmother's gold and emerald jewelry hung from her ears, neck and wrists. She had green heeled sandals and a daffodil boutonniere bouncing in her hands as she made her way closer to Jay, amazed that he was hovering in the air because of his hair.

An gently grabbed the bottom of his jacket and carefully pulled him back down and held up the boutonniere to him, "Hold still, Jay, I don't want to poke you when I put this on." Jay smiled as he helped her pin the boutonniere on his jacket and then slipped the corsage around her wrist.

The others followed their lead and began carefully pinning the boutonnieres and slipping the corsages on, their faces flushed and their hands shaking with nerves.

After taking a million pictures, a stretch limo pulled into the cul-de-sac, the girls looked at their boyfriends, astounded.

"You guys got a limo?!" Jenny squealed.

"This is so cool!" Karen agreed.

"Best boyfriends, EVER!" An cried as she hugged Jay tight. The guys stood there, a feeling of dread sinking into their stomachs.

"No." Tee said, his mouth dry, "We didn't…"

The doors opened and several large men came out of the car and raced over to them, then jammed a stun gun into each boy's stomach and stuffed them into the limo before hopping back in, Frank Dearly popping his head out of an open window and shaking his previously unseen hand, revealing that it was a coat hanger hook as he called out, "My apologizes, Ladies, but my new tuxedo line is depending on your boyfriends! But no worries, there will be other dances!" Mr. Dearly then slipped back into the car and drove away, leaving the girls and everyone's family standing there, stunned.

"… Did our boyfriends just get kidnapped by a guy with a coat hanger hook for a hand?" Anny finally asked, the other girls nodded in disbelief before all six of them hung their heads. The adults finally began pulling out their phones, frantically tapping 911 into them and calling for help.

Sam and Jamie looked at each other, concerned, they had watched the girls prepare for this night for over a month (They met up at Anny's for sleepovers on Saturdays and would head over to Jamie's during the day on Sundays and An would drag Sam over so he could still spend time with his girlfriend and give the girls a guy's opinion), helping each other with make up, hair and much more, trying to perfect their ensembles for their boyfriends, wanting to look their best.

And now the men they had worked so hard to impress were gone.

Sam cautiously walked up to his sister, not wanting to make her feel worse, "An?" he called softly as he gently laid a hand on her arm, "You okay?"

An didn't reply.

"It'll be okay, An…" he said, unsure of his own words and what to say next. He doubted that they would get Jay and the others back before the Prom was over and it wasn't like any of them could do anything about it.

"… It's not okay, Baby Brother." An finally said, her voice calm but void of any of her normal cheer. Sam backed away a bit, startled by her dark tone. She and the other girls lifted their heads, their eyes dark with rage, their noses were flared, their lips pulled into furious frowns, the wind blowing their hair so a few single stray hairs they hadn't managed to wrangle into their fancy hair-dos into their faces, making them look terrifying to all who were there.

"Damn right, An." Anny snarled.

She motioned to the other girls and they all stomped up to their houses, which was actually quite a feat since they were all wearing such fancy shoes (Author: doesn't matter if you're wearing heels or flats, they're hard to stomp in, no matter how mad you are. It hurts your feet and ruins your shoes.) and slammed the door behind them.

The women left behind suddenly became solemn, freaking the men out a little bit.

"What's happening right now?" Sam asked, completely confused.

"You never mess with a girl on her Prom Night." Jamie said in a voice that was cold, dark and factual.

"Why are you talking like that?" Sam asked, "And why are the girls…" his next question was cut off by the sound of a door being kicked open.

Sam turned to see his sister with the same terrifying expression she had on that time she had a rock in her shoe, holding a duffel bag with a greenish gas leaking out of a small gap near the zipper. He heard a few more doors slam open and saw the other girls with bags and similar terrifying expressions on their faces as they stormed over to the retro van.

"Uh, An, what are you guys doing?" Sam managed to squeak out. The girls looked at him, determined,

"We're getting our Prom Night back, you two coming?"

.

.

.

Nate awoke in a room similar to the dressing room he and the Kankers had used earlier in the year for the school play. Mirrors surrounded with bright lights made it hard for him to figure out where he was at first, a shelf with various types of make up, combs and more sat before him. He noticed a video camera in the far corner of the room in the mirror, 'Great.' He thought, "We're being watched.' He then glanced to his left and saw Tee, Jay and Patrick, slumped over with their arms and heads resting on the shelf in front of them, slowly stirring. He looked to his right and saw Larie and Conner groan as they began pulling themselves off the shelves, blocking the light with one arm as they sat up.

"Where are we?" Jay asked, rubbing his sore belly.

"I think… we're in some sort of dressing room." Nate answered, feeling a little out of breath for some reason.

"Dressing room?" Larie repeated, feeling as if he had been sucker punched in the stomach, "We're supposed to be at Prom…"

Pat silently groaned and nodded and reached for his fallen hat and pulled his note pad out of it and wrote, 'Yeah, why are we here?' and held it up, weakly.

Conner rubbed his temples, "Last thing I remember was… we were walking with the girls and a random limo pulled up…"

Tee's eyes widened and he straightened, now he remembered! After being stun gunned in the stomach, he was awake for a little bit in the limo. He saw that Frank Dearly guy lean out the window and tell their girlfriends that they wouldn't be going to Prom with them and felt the limo jerk forward before it all went black.

"Shit." He moaned, "We let our guards down for a minute and we get kidnapped by the guy from the mall."

"The suit guy?" Larie asked, as he rubbed his eyes, angling his head downwards to shield them from the light, only to stop, concerned. "This isn't my suit..." He said, obviously disturbed as he looked down at his clothes.

The guys looked at him funny, ready to tell him he was paranoid only to see that he was right. His black tux, rustic red vest and black tie had been replaced with a dark blue suit, a black vest and a dark purple tie. They all quickly looked down at their own clothes, panicking at the thought of someone changing their clothes while they were unconscious.

Nate's white suit was replaced with a black one, his pink vest was swapped out with a green one and he had a black tie instead of a pink one.

Conner's suit was still black and he still had his hat and his grandpa's bolo tie, but his red vest was exchanged for a brown one.

Patrick's classic black suit and white vest and red tie were swapped out for a white suit, a dark blue vest and a white tie, his black top hat was replaced with a white one, but his note pad and pen had been stuffed inside of it.

Tee's tux was still black, but his vest was now red instead of gold and his tie was now white instead of pink.

Jay's white suit was exchanged for a black one, his green vest now yellow and his yellow tie was now white.

They fidgeted with discomfort at the thought of some stranger stripping them down and putting these new suits on them, Jay glanced at himself in the mirror, wondering what else that person had done when his eyes went wide with horror. He patted his front pocket and then really began to panic. "It's gone! The flower An pinned to my suit is gone!" he cried, looking around the room frantically, desperately hoping to find the boutonniere An had given him somewhere in the room.

The others patted themselves down to find that the flowers their girlfriends had pinned to their suits were gone as well, only to find them missing.

Pat over turned his hat and dumped his note pad and pen on the floor, hoping that whoever changed his clothes had put his orchid in there too, he noticed a few more hats displayed on a shelf behind them and began tossing them everywhere, trying to find it. Nate looked under the shelves, wondering if his pink rose had been placed on it while he had been changed and fell underneath of it. Conner patted himself down and couldn't find the purple lily anywhere, he cursed under his breath, "Why the heck didn't you just take the stupid tie and left the flower?" he hissed under his breath. The Kanker brothers got down on their hands and knees and looked around the floor, but it was no good, they couldn't find any of their boutonnieres in the room. It might have seemed strange for them to search so frantically for these flowers, but they weren't planning on sticking around and since their suits were gone, the only thing that they'd have to show that they were with their girlfriends were those flowers.

And now they were gone.

After a few moments, they quickly decided that, since their boutonnieres were not here, that they should probably get out of here, find their old tuxes and get the hell outta there.

Tee tried the door, but it wouldn't budge, he could neither pull nor push it open, which was weird, since the lock on the door was on the inside and unlocked. "It's not budging, but it's not locked." He announced.

"Probably have something blocking the door from the outside." Conner figured.

"Jackasses…" Larie commented bitterly, "If I just had the flame thrower Ann gave me, I'd have us out of here in two seconds…" he then began muttering bitterly to himself about all the things he'd do to their kidnappers when they were free from the room they were trapped in.

Patrick scribbled on his sheet, 'So, what do we do now? We're trapped in here.'

"I guess we just wait until they open the door, Dude." Nate said, then added, "Maybe we could rush them when they do and make a run for it…"

They all waited a beat, considering the plan, "It's risky, but it's the best plan we've got right now." Tee said in a serious tone.

They all then scanned the room, soaking in their surroundings, trying to see if there were any other ways out or if there was anything they could use to help themselves get out. After several painfully long seconds of searching, they realized that there was nothing. They flopped down in their seats with aggravated huffs, "I guess we wait then…" Conner concluded.

So they did.

And it really sucked.

And, after what felt like an eternity of waiting, the boys' 'rush 'um when they open the door and escape' plan was thrown for a loop when, to their shock, Clover and Zoe (from Chapter 10-11) opened the door, holding an unconscious Sam by his armpits in a white suit with a pink vest and a light blue tie.

"Sam! Zoe! Clover!" Jay cried as they quickly swarmed the two women who quickly closed the door behind them. Jay opened his mouth to speak but quickly realized that Zoe's baby bump had grown since the Kankers had seen her last, and it made it more difficult for her to hold Sam up without him smacking her in the belly. He grabbed Sam from her side and heaved the kid up so he was leaning on his shoulder, once he and Patrick helped the boy into a chair he finally turned around and asked, "What are you all doing here?"

"We were taken from our homes." Clover explained bitterly. Zoe hugged her belly, "They hurt my Jude and dragged me away." She said, her voice cracking as her eyes welled with tears. Jay pulled her into a hug and let her sob into his shoulder, "It'll be okay, Zoe, we'll all get out of here and get you and your baby back home to him. It'll be okay…"

"And as for the kid, apparently the guards found the kid wandering around the halls here." Clover reported, "From what we managed to glean from the guards, they caught 'um, stun gunned him in the stomach and then they had us change his clothes and told us to put him in here."

Patrick scribbled on his note pad, 'Wait, they found him in the halls?'

"Hey, yeah," Tee said, "He wasn't taken with us, he was back with the girls so…" he stopped in the middle of sentence when he spotted smiles beginning to grow on the women's faces. "Uh, why are you two smiling?"

Clover's smile grew into an impish one in no time, "Isn't tonight your Prom?" she asked as Zoe released Jay with a hopeful grin on her face.

"Yeah," Conner replied, "Why?"

Before the women could reply, an explosion shook the building, jolting Sam from his involuntary nap and sending him falling to the floor. "Sam!" Jay cried as he went to his aid, Tee, Nate and Conner looking around wildly while Larie steadied himself and Patrick wrote on his notepad with a shaking hand.

'WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT?' Patrick held up for all to see. Larie sat there for a moment, processing… then his eyes lit up and a large smile popped on his face, "The girls… they're here!"

Zoe bounced over to Clover, suddenly ecstatic, "WE'RE SAVED!" she squealed as she hugged her friend, nearly making her topple over.

"Wait, wait, wait." Conner said, holding up his hands, then looked at Larie, "How does that explosion mean the girls are here?"

Larie looked at him, a big grin on his face, "My Muffin's grandfather on her dad's side worked on the Manhattan Project with Albert Einstein, so making big bangs is in her blood."

. . .

"Wait just a moment!" Allbert cried, looking at his mother, stunned, "So Larry and Terry get their bomb making tendencies from you, Mother?"

Larry and Terry's jaws dropped, their mother, the woman who was always on their cases about making bombs all the time, always telling them off when she found another one and even had the bomb squad sweep their house every week for them, was where they got their bomb making skills from in the first place?

… Well, needless to say that they didn't see that coming.

Mildred and Emma didn't say anything, they just stared at their mother, their eyes wide with shock and confusion.

Ann looked at her children sheepishly and guiltily rubbing her arm, "Yes, well, it was only that one incident…"

"And that time in Somalia…" Larie added, earning a glare and an irritated pat on the leg from his wife. "But that's a story for another time…" he said quickly.

"Indeed." His wife said in a tone that gave Larie the feeling that if he wasn't careful, he'd be sleeping on the couch tonight.

"Anyways…" He went on, nervously, "So where were we?"

"Hang on!" Fiona called, then began digging in her purse, "Clover gave me something when I told her what was going on tonight…" she pulled out a CD and held it up, "Clover managed to get a copy the security tape footage that night before the police arrived, she gave this to me so we could see what the girls did that night!"

The mothers stiffened and they looked at Fiona, their eyes wide with horror as Luca dashed over, thanked his mom for the CD and ran back to the computer and stuck it into the computer while Isori turned off the lights and started up the projector.

The CD loaded up and a window with an image empty hallway taken from a high angle appeared on the screen. Luca slid the mouse over the play button on the screen, and was about to click on it when Jamie cried, "Wait!" Making everyone look over at her flustered form, "Before you watch this, you should probably know why Sam was in that hallway first, right?"

The others paused thinking, then nodded.

"Honestly, you never told us how you two got in there..." Karen revealed, hoping to delay the viewing of the tape a little longer with that fact.

. . .

Sam and Jamie had hopped in for the ride on the retro van with the girls, and during this time, Sam had seen a side that he had never seen in the girls he had grown up with…

And this side was frightening to say the least.

They somehow managed to find where the boys had been taken with mixes of random talents, some of which Sam hadn't known the girls even had.

After roughly twenty minutes or so, (Sam didn't fucking know, he was weirded out and scared, so his perception of time was definitely off to some degree) they stopped in front of a guard house with a stripped bar blocking their way, the guard made them stop and roll down the windows… only for Karen to shot him square in the forehead with a stun gun, using perfect aim that she had apparently gained from her dad taking her out shooting with him when she was young and for Jenny to hack into the guard house with her phone, using the hacking skill she had picked up from years of finding downloadable music for free without getting into trouble, and raised the stripped gate and allowed them to drive through with no obstacles.

Once they parked, the girls removed their corsages and placed them carefully along the side of the interior of the van, (not wanting to damage them in anyway while rescuing their dates) and slid out of the van one by one, careful not to soil their gown or ruin their shoes, but when Sam and Jamie were about to slide out behind An, she stopped them with a hand and gently pushed them back into the car, "You two stay here." She said in a stern voice.

"But…!" Jamie began, only for An to scowl and cover her mouth with her hand, "It's not safe." She said plainly.

"The Chinless-An girl is right, Ranger Jamie, you and Loud-Mouth-Sam boy stay here and guard the vehicle, we shall be back soon enough." Rachel said firmly. The other girls nodded and walked around to a dark spot on the building where there were no cameras or guards out of Sam and Jamie's line of sight.

"An's kinda freaking me out." Sam admitted sheepishly.

"Well any girl can be scary when you mess with her Prom Night." Jamie replied.

"…That doesn't make me feel any better." He said.

"It wasn't supposed to." She said plainly. Then, after a moment, she added, "Isn't this kind of romantic?"

Sam looked at her, a little disturbed, "Uh… what?"

"It's like the tale of Cinderella, only not only does she have to get ready for the ball, but she has to rescue her prince and arrive at the ball before Midnight."

"… We're going to have a long talk about this later…"

After a few moments, Jamie took Sam's hand, "Come on, we're going to sneak in and help them whether they like it or not!" Sam opened his mouth to say something like, 'No, let's not piss off the women who are already infuriated and on a rampage-slash-rescue-mission by disobeying their direct orders.' But Jamie's pleading look stopped him before he could utter a sound, "Please, Sam." She whimpered, "They worked so hard and are so upset, and if we help get the others before they do, then they will calm down and happily go to Prom and we can call our parents to pick us up there."

Sam sat there, for a moment, contemplating her concept, then sighed, "Fine." Jamie squealed and gave him a hug before they snuck out of the van and, with luck on their side, managed to get in through an unlocked side door that a guard had propped open with a brick so he could slip out for a quick smoke.

Sam and Jamie slowly made their way down an open, mostly empty hallway, unsure where to go and uneasy since they had no idea where any guards could be lurking. They stuck to the walls and crouched low to the ground, hoping that their tactic would make it so the guards wouldn't notice them as well.

They got close to a door and Jamie told Sam she was going to go in alone, since she knew what could be in there (since the guys had been kidnapped for some guy's fashion thing, so, as an avid follower of the newest fashions, she felt she could blend in) Sam didn't like the idea, but he knew nothing about what was beyond that door, for all he knew it was empty or had plenty places for her to hide or the people inside would hide her and help her find the others, or it could be the exact opposite. He didn't know, but what he did know, though, was that she wouldn't take, 'it's not safe' for an answer for once. So he whispered that if she needed him, to scream and he'd be there as fast as he could. Jamie gave him a smile and a peck on the cheek before opening the door a crack and slipping inside, quietly closing the door behind her.

Sam waited for a moment or two, when a guard turned a corner and saw him, "HEY! KID! WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING HERE?" He shouted.

Now Sam had several options flash through his brain as the guard seemed to bound towards him in slow motion.

Now, he could run into the room Jamie was in and hide with her, but there could be nothing in that room and end up getting them both caught or lost somewhere in here, but that would do nothing but make the situation worse. So he tossed that plan out. If at least Jamie was safe (or at least he hoped she was, he had no idea, really) she could tell the girls that he had been captured or follow Sam and wherever this guard would take him and possibly find where the other guys were and she could tell the girls and get them all out of here safely.

He could also call out for An or Jay to help him, but he had no idea if he was anywhere close to them or if by calling out to his sister, he'd give her position away and ruin the rescue or cause Jay to get hurt again. He also knew that he shouldn't always rely on them to save him, especially since An had already tried to keep him and Jamie safe by telling them to stay in the van. So that idea was instantly vetoed.

That left only one plan in his head - to make a lot of noise and lure the guard away from the door Jamie was hiding behind and hope that Jamie could find the girls so they could save his ass along with the other guys before the guards beat the shit out of him.

"YOU'LL NEVER CATCH ME, DICK HEAD!" he shouted loudly, then turned on his heel and ran down the hall.

Jamie peeped out into the hall to see her boyfriend run about ten feet down the hall before getting captured by a few guards. She watched him punch, kick, bite and fight back tooth and nail against the grown men, then cry out as they stun-gunned him and then dragged his limp body further down the hall until they rounded a corner and dragged him out of sight.

"Sam?" she whimpered softly.

. . .

Jasmine and Stella looked at their dad, who looked embarrassed that everyone knew how easily he had been taken down.

"So you let yourself get caught and beaten so Mom would be safe?" Jasmine asked, impressed. Sam seemed surprised by her question, as if he'd never seen it like that before, (he'd always saw it as him getting his ass beaten) he then nodded slowly, only for Stella to run up to him and hug his legs, "That's so heroic, Daddy!" she squealed, looking up at him with wide, sparkling eyes of admiration. Sam flushed and rubbed the back of his head bashfully as Cole piped up, "Now that we know how Mr. Sam got captured, can we please see the security video now?"

The children and grandparents nodded eagerly while the mothers began sinking in their seats, either embarrassed or dreading what everyone would see next.

Luca eagerly clicked the play button.

At first, the only way they could tell that time was going by was the time counter in the corner, after a minute of nothing, Andy cried out, "Fast Forward until you get to the action!" Luca nodded in agreement and pressed the double triangle button to skip an hour of empty hallway, then an explosion erupted onto the screen and Luca quickly back tracked in the footage and pressed play so it started a few seconds before the explosion.

Once it happened, a gym bag with a funky green gas coming out of it was thrown into the hall, making the approaching guards gag and cover their faces.

"What kind of gas is that, Mother?" Larry asked.

"One that is way too difficult for you to access." She replied curtly.

"That's no gas, that's my gym bag." An answered, making a good portion of the children look at her, a little disgusted.

"So that odor coming from that bag…" Terry began.

"Was from my gym clothes!" An finished. The kids gagged for a moment then resumed watching as two figures shrouded in the green gas slipped into the hall.

One was already armed with an oddly shaped weapon while the other snagged a metal girder from the destroyed wall. The two figures began beating the guards left and right as the green gas began to dissipate, once the funky smelling fog had lifted it was revealed that the figures were An and Rachel, An holding the girder and Rachel holding a large fish, both were still wearing their Prom attire. Conner's grip on the arms of his chair tightened and Jay bit into his lip until it bleed, both men's eyes wide and their legs crossed, as if hiding something. (Author: three guesses as to what that 'something' is)

"You didn't change?" April asked the women.

"We wanted to get our dates back and get to Prom as quick as we could." Anny explained, "Changing out of our dresses and back again would have taken up too much time." April considered the information and nodded, it made sense.

She then glanced back up at the screen as the other girls walked onto the scene, An zipping up her bag while the others surveyed An and Rachel's handiwork.

Anny mouthed something to the others, shocking the others with the fact that this security system had no sound to it after the explosion.

The video was paused and all eyes went to the mothers in the front row, who sighed then began to elaborate on what was happening at that moment.

. . .

"Nicely done." Anny purred as she kicked a limp guard, then looked to Jenny and Ann, "You two sync up to the security camera yet?"

Ann and Jenny's eyes didn't leave their cell phones as they nodded grimly, "Unfortunately our boyfriends aren't the only ones in danger…" Ann announced.

"What do you mean?" Karen asked them. Ann and Jenny looked at their simple friend as she scooped her gym bag onto her shoulder, the girder in her free hand.

"I'm sorry to break this to ya, An, but…" Jenny held up her phone, revealing footage of Sam being stun gunned and dragged away, "They got Sam too." She said in a soft tone. An's confident smiling face sank into one of fear and horror as she slowly took the phone from Jenny's hands and looked at the frozen image of her brother crying out in pain on the screen, her hands began to shake with rage and nearly broke the phone with her clenched fingers, but Rachel stopped her with a hand on her shoulder, "While Rachel understands that Noodle-Head-An girl is furious and seeking vengeance, Rachel suggests waiting until after we have saved the victims and find the mastermind behind this to do so, yes?" After a moment, An nodded reluctantly and returned Jenny's phone.

"Wait." Karen said, then turned to Jenny, "You said 'too'. 'They got Sam too.' Who else did they get?"

Ann showed several faces on her phone, "Every hair stylist, make up artist, and tailor of any sort in town, two of whom we know personally, and Jamie, who all of these people are hiding from the guards."

"Who are the ones we know?" Jenny asked, "Besides Jamie, I mean."

"Zoe and Clover." Ann replied.

"NOT THEM!" An cried.

"The Pregnant Barber and the Devil-Tongued Dressmaker? The ones who aided us these past weeks to prepare for tonight's festivities?" Rachel asked, then she snarled and shouted, "THE DAUGHTER OF A SHEPHERD WILL GRIND THOSE POACHERS INTO DIRT!"

"Dust." Jenny corrected, "Grind them into dust."

"That is what I said, yes?"

"And to think this wasn't personal enough." Karen growled.

"Okay," Anny said firmly, catching her fellow females' attention, "New plan. We're splitin' up into pairs, An and Karen will find the kidnapped stylists and designers and help them find a way out of here and rescue Jamie."

An nodded and clutched her girder tightly while Karen simply said, "We'll call you when it's done." Before the two clomped off in their fancy shoes down the hall and around the corner.

"Anny, if I may, perhaps Jenny and I can find the security room and find out more about the lay of the land, it might make it easier for us to find our way around here as well as help us find everyone and get out of this unharmed. It'll be easier for us to use their servers instead of relying on our phones, if our batteries get drained and we need your help…" Anny nodded, "got it. But call us once you do find that room and guide us through this place." The two nodded and briskly slipped away and scurried out of sight.

"Rachel is curious as to what we will be doing, Mouth-Like-A-Trout-An girl."

Anny smirked deviously and smiled as she admired the sharp tips of her long fingernails, "We keep all eyes on us, let them do what they need to and then we all get our boyfriends back and show that hook-handed freak what happens when you mess with a girls' Prom Night." Rachel smiled impishly as she flourished her fish before both girls looked up at a nearby security camera, "The Daughter of a Shepherd approves." Rachel purred. The two then destroyed the camera with a flick of both of their wrists.

. . .

Everyone but the mothers in the front row cried out, frustrated when the camera went out and gave them only static.

There was a little drool on Tee's chin that he quickly wiped off before anyone but his children and wife had noticed, Anny smirked at him knowingly and gently nudged him, making him flush a bit and shrug. Andy, Mia and Tia resisted the urge to comment on their parent's behavior and simply pretended to ignore it.

There were cracks on the arms of the chair Conner was sitting on as he squeezed them tighter than before, luckily for him, unlike Tee's children, his didn't notice him crushing the arms of the chair with his bare hands, they were too busy calling out for Luca to somehow fix the video they were watching with everyone else.

Luca rose his hands, "Alright! Alright! Settle down and give me a moment, in the mean time, why doesn't everyone get more to eat? There's plenty and after all we have all night to hear the story."

The parents in the front row's eyes widened, Ann opened her mouth to argue that they couldn't because the children had school in the morning, only to remember that tomorrow would be a Saturday and therefore, she had no excuse for the adults to end the interrogation here.

The others shrugged and went up to grab a plateful of food, the parents in the front row remained seated and silent, their heads tilted down to the floor, not making eye contact with anyone, dreading what they would have to reveal next when Connie, Stella and Emma tip toed over to their parents with a cup in each hand, and silently offered them to their parents, smiling sweetly as they did so. Soon the parents were swarmed with plates full of food and cups filled with fruit punch and their children's slightly sheepish smiles.

"Is this a peace offering?" Anny asked them.

"Something like that." Andy replied, then after a moment, said, "You never thought anyone would ever ask about that night?"

"You mean besides Gladys the Great?" Tee asked.

"Yeah, I mean, why didn't your parents ask…?"

"Because you don't mess with a girl's Prom and get away with it." The women in the room answered in unison.

"They said they'd be fine." Ben added, motioning to the grandmothers and great-grandmothers in the room, "Can't say they were wrong, but still…"

"And since we found the boys sleeping in the basement the next morning like we had planned for them to do, we knew all was well." Nate's mother interrupted.

"So you seriously never asked about how they got the guys back just because it was their Prom Night?" Luca asked.

"Nope." The women replied.

Luca and the children looked at each other, stunned, making Isori shake her head, "The girls wanted their Prom night to be perfect, so they carefully planned for weeks to look their best and have fun. After all that effort for the perfect night, they wouldn't just let someone snatch away their dates and ruin their nights." She then looked at her boyfriend, "Didn't your Prom date get all fussy with you about all the details that went into it?"

Luca rubbed the back of his head, "My Prom date was the girlfriend of a girl I was friends with whose parents were homophobes, so I pretended she was my girlfriend and my friend brought a friend of ours who was a sophomore as her 'date' and when we got to the Prom, those girls strolled off to dance with each other while my sophomore friend and I goofed off with some friends." He explained, "My 'date' was just happy that I took her so she could enjoy her time with her girlfriend at the Prom…" he then looked around and noticed all eyes were on him, he flushed and cleared his throat, "Anyway, I found our Prom Queens, the system the cameras were on allowed it to record three areas at once, so I have three things happening at once, so after we're done eating, I'll play the one that had Miss An and Miss Karen first, since they were the first ones to appear on the cameras after Miss Anny and Miss Rachel destroyed the last one. Then I'll play the one with Ann and Miss Jenny, then I'll play the one with Miss Anny and Miss Rachel last, after that, we'll see where we end up with these tapes." He announced, then scrunched himself behind the computer screen and began clicking and typing, trying to avoid the curious stares the room was giving him.

His mothers walked up to him and handed him and Isori a plate full of food and a cup full of punch and each gave him a kiss on the cheek, "That's our boy." They purred before returning to their seats.

Everyone but the front row ate quickly, which was fine, since even though the parents on trial were lagging on purpose, Luca needed to test the sound and scroll through the footage to see when he'd spot one of the girls and pause the footage so he could swap between cameras when he needed to.

Once the parents in the front row decided to stop delaying the inevitable ten minutes after everyone was done, Luca announced that the next bit of footage was ready for viewing and reminded them that this footage was of An and Karen before pressing play.

. . .

An and Karen raced through the halls opening random doors and glancing within to see if anyone was there, An swiping stray guards that were trying to get to Anny and Rachel's position with the girder whenever they popped up.

By door number ten, they hit the jackpot.

Inside was a large studio with racks of dresses and suits, make up tables and big mirrors, and almost all of the dressmakers and stylists in town. The people inside were nervously chatting among themselves and trying to act cheerful, as if pretending that everything was fine and they chose to come here of their own free will.

"Whoa..." The two girls murmured as the room quickly locked on to them, their eyes bright with fear until they realized that the girls were wearing Prom Dresses. Then they swarmed the two, concerned.

"Did they kidnap you two as well?"

"That Hook-Handed Creep! Honestly, kidnapping kids and forcing them to wear his stupid suits!"

"Are you two alright?"

Karen put up her hands, silently asking them to quiet down a moment so they could answer their questions, "We're here to help you guys and get our Prom Dates back." She explained. The room suddenly was filled with gasps and murmurs, "So, those boys that they brought in here earlier, those were your Prom Dates?"

An and Karen brightened, "Yes!" An cried, "Do you know where they are?"

"No, the guards made two women drag them out of here one by one, the rest of us haven't even been allowed out of the room!"

"And one of them was pregnant! Honestly! The nerve!"

Karen and An looked at each other, "Zoe and Clover." They said in unison, then An looked back at the crowd, "Does anyone know where they took my baby brother?" she asked them in a soft voice as she pulled out her phone and showed the crowd a photo of her and Sam from a few weeks back.

"The guards brought him in, had us all change him into one of this crazy guy's suits then had those two women drag him out of here, he's most likely with your dates."

An let out a sigh of relief as she put her phone away and Karen asked, "Have you seen a young girl with fluffy hair too? She was with her brother."

The room was lit up with smiles, "Actually…" one of the stylists walked over to the other side of the room, lifted up a box and revealed a curled up and sobbing Jamie sitting on the ground. She looked up at the stylist, confused. The stylist pointed towards An and Karen and Jamie's face lifted when she spotted them, "WE'RE SAVED!" she cheered as she raced over towards them, only to skid to a stop and give them gentle hugs so she wouldn't mess up their dresses with her leftover tears or by squeezing them too tight.

The two red heads' eyes were soft as An pulled her into a tight hug and Karen ruffled her hair, "Good to see you're okay, Fluffy." Karen said softly.

An hugged Jamie for another moment or so before putting her down and scowling at her, "BAD GIRL! AN TOLD YOU AND SAM TO STAY IN THE VAN AND BE SAFE, NOT TO RUN AROUND THE BAD GUY'S LAIR AND GET CAPTURED!" Jamie hung her head shamefully and rubbed her arms, "I know. But we just wanted to help find the boys and get you guys to Prom faster…" She looked up at the girls with glassy eyes, "I didn't know this would happen! This is all my fault! Sam said we should stay but I insisted we go in! And now he's been captured by the bad guys and… and… I'm so sorry!" she cried, then broke down into tears. An lifted her up and held her like a young child and patted her on the back, "Shhh… An forgives you, but next time she tells you to stay in the van, you do it, okay?" Jamie nodded and held onto An, taking deep breaths to calm herself.

Karen told the others to follow them and they'd help them get out safely, raising cheers as she reached for the doorknob… only for it to turn on it's own and open to a bunch of big, buff security guards.

"Shit!" Karen cried as she leapt backwards (which is hard to do in those shoes) as the men flooded the room, Jamie let out a cry as they formed a circle around their group. One of them took a swipe at Jamie, only for An to move backwards, making him miss Jamie and knock one of her earrings to the floor. Everyone in the room gasped as they watched the expensive earring fall to the floor and hit the ground with a deafening ~Clink!~

An's eyes widened at the sound and her hand grasped the now bare ear, her fingers searching for the antique jewelry that once hung there only to discover that it wasn't there.

Her jewelry belonged to her grandmother, who was currently sick, she loaned them to her for the night after An promised to take excellent care of the lovely pieces…

And now one of those priceless, beautiful pieces of jewelry was on the ground because someone couldn't just let her enjoy her Prom Night with Jay.

An shook with unbridled rage, her eyes red and glowing, she took a bite of the girder and lifted Jamie onto her shoulders, "'Amie!" An cried with a mouthful of metal, "Aim!" An then spat a ball of metal the size of a ping pong ball at one of the guards, hitting him in the chest and causing him to fall to his knees, holding his chest and trying to breath. Jamie quickly grabbed An by the ears and began turning her head as she spat metal ball after metal ball at the guards at such a rapid pace, you'd think she was a machine gun.

Karen glanced around for something, anything as another punch headed her way, she leaned backwards, using the flexibility she had gotten from all those years of cheerleading to dodge the blow. She straightened when the guard's fist returned to his side and he then sent out a flurry of punches that she managed to dodge… until the last one.

She had turned to the side as his hand whizzed past her face… only to see some of her foundation and blush now on the back of his hand.

Karen had searched for two weeks to find the perfect shades of make up to match her skin and dress, and then it took her two hours to apply it perfectly to her face.

And that man wrecked all of her efforts with One. Foul. Swoop.

Her teeth were sharp and her mouth was curled in a furious frown as she grabbed a can of hairspray and used it to blind the guard then kick him hard in the nuts. A few of the captives saw that and grabbed some more cans and began spraying them at the guards, making them shield their eyes as Karen looked for a more suitable weapon to wreck these bastards with.

She finally settled on two bedazzling guns on a nearby counter and quickly bombarded the guards with fake gems that dug into their skin and clothes on contact.

An, Jamie and Karen stood back to back, shooting the guards until the last one fell to the ground, out cold. The three girls panted, the adrenaline in their blood beginning to wane now that the fight was over. An let Jamie down and walked over and picked up the earring, inspecting it for damage. It was still in one piece, but dirty…

Jamie asked one of the make up artists for something to clean it with and, after receiving it, scurried over and carefully cleaned the gold and emerald earring and carefully helped An put it back on. An thanked her and looked at her weapon, she had a quarter of the metal girder left, she quickly punched through the wall and grabbed a new one and handed the smaller one to Jamie, only for her to take it back when she saw Jamie couldn't hold it up. Karen shoved refill packs into the bedazzle guns and a handful of random make-up containers into her clutch and nodded towards her friends.

Jamie directed everyone out the door while An called Anny to inform her of their progress. Meanwhile, Karen had finally noticed the camera above them, she held up one of her guns and shot it once to make the camera go black.

. . .

Kim, Noah, Calvin, April, Sheldon, Jasmine and Stella's jaws had descended until they went half way down their necks as they turned to their mothers, their eyes bright with admiration.

Karen turned away from her children only to see her husband's eyes were wide, his own jaw dropped and that he had bent the metal sides of his chair with his bare hands. She was surprised and a little concerned about his reaction but before she could say or do anything, her triplets were huddled up by her feet and began gushing about how cool she was. She didn't know what to say, so she simply smiled and soaked up the praise.

An looked at Jay and saw his ponytail whirling in the air like crazy, making a few of the people behind him scoot back so they wouldn't get hit, and his buck teeth cut deep into his lower lip, making it bleed. "Jay! You're bleeding!" she cried, then she pulled a crumpled tissue from her pocket (although if it had been used or not was hard to say) and pressed it against her husband's bleeding lip. April and Sheldon crawled over to their parents, "Hey mom, can you teach me how to be a machine gun?" Sheldon asked. An looked at her children, then at her husband, then at her children, unsure which ones to address first. "Maybe later, Shelly." She finally replied before putting more pressure on her husband's lip with the tissue. April said nothing and just stared at her mom, wondering what skills she had inherited from her and imagined how cool it would be to use them in a rescue mission.

Jasmine and Stella looked at their mom, one of the two biggest users of the phrase ; "Violence isn't always the answer" (Ann is the other one) and just looked at her, stunned. Jasmine thought that what she did was awesome, while Stella felt completely unsure about what she had just seen.

"Mom, did you just use Aunt An as a machine gun?" Jasmine asked excitedly.

"No! I just helped her hit the bad guys more easily!" She replied, turning her head to avoid eye-contact with her own daughters to see her husband looking at the screen, terrified. Jamie poked her husband with her finger, but got no response, "Sam?" she called, trying to snap him out of whatever daze he was in.

"That was the last thing on this footage." Luca announced, "I'll start up Ann and Miss Jenny's now."

Jenny and Ann turned around and were ready to cry out 'no', but Luca had already pulled up the window and pressed play before they had the chance, leaving them to turn back around and cross their fingers that the camera Luca was pulling the footage off of didn't capture all that much.

. . .

Ann and Jenny managed to avoid being spotted as they checked door after door while trying to find the security room. They finally found it on their eighth try and quickly slipped into the room and closed the door behind them so they wouldn't get caught.

The room was dark, the only light coming from a computer screen and several monitors hanging on the wall behind it. From the little light in the room, they could spot a few chairs and a fire extinguisher hanging on the wall, but that was it.

"It seems Anny and Rachel are doing a good job distracting the guards." Ann observed, indicating one of the screens on the wall, showing Anny and Rachel kicking ass.

"Yeah, but wouldn't they leave at least one guard here to monitor the situation and call the police?" Jenny asked her. Ann considered this theory for a moment…

Before she could agree with her thoughts, they suddenly felt the ground beneath them shake as several ninjas landed on the floor around them, making a circle around the two of them and blocking their way, swords and daggers of various sizes glimmering in the little light that was in the room.

"Ninjas?" Jenny and Ann cried out in disbelief, "Are you freaking kidding me?" Jenny shouted, then she looked at Ann, concerned. While she knew Ann knew how to fight a little bit, she doubted that she could take on a ninja, let alone the mini army they were faced with now. "I'll hold them off, Double-N! You figure out where the guys are and how to get there!"

Ann looked ready to argue, but Jenny silenced her with a stare as she pushed off of the ground and spin-kicked several ninjas, clearing a path to the computer. Ann then dashed towards it as Jenny dodged slashes, stabs and strikes, desperately scanning the room for some sort of weapon.

One of the ninjas slashed at her feet with a sword, luckily, Jenny managed to spot him before he struck, jumping into the air to avoid the hit… only for the heels of her shoes to be sliced off in the process. Jenny staggered a bit as she landed, glancing back at the heels of her shoes that had fallen on the floor.

It had taken her a week of searching through fourteen shopping malls to find the perfect shoes that were cute, comfy, and gave her some height so Pat wouldn't have to lean over to give her a smooch at Prom. And it had cost her a fucking fortune.

And now they were in pieces…

She gritted her teeth as her face went red with rage, she grabbed the fire extinguisher and smacked the nearest ninja in the face with it, "YOU JUST FUCKED WITH THE WRONG BITCH!" she shouted as she blocked blows, smashed faces and shot ice cold smush in their faces with the fire extinguisher, she then began jumping off of them, hitting them with either her fist, her ruined shoes or her fire extinguisher, flipping or spinning in the air with the grace of an Olympic gymnast to the next Ninja.

Ann had to force herself not to look away from the screen and watch her friend fight, although she was concerned for Jenny, she was only putting herself on the line in the first place because she knew that one of them needed to fight and the other needed to get the information they needed. She typed as fast as she could, pulling up the building's blueprints and sorting through the camera footage to find their boyfriends, too absorbed in her task to notice the sword welding ninja behind her, his blade raised.

He slung the blade down, fast and hard, only for it to hit her hair and shatter.

Ann paused, glancing left and right, then shrugged and went back to work. The ninja wasn't pleased by this outcome and tried again with a different blade, only for it to shatter on her hair again. The ninja frantically tried three more times only for Ann to turn around and say, "Excuse me, but would you mind doing that elsewhere, I'm trying to work. Thank you." Then turn her back on him as she went back to work.

The ninja was furious, he pulled out another sword, rose it high over Ann's head and swung, making it shatter the moment it hit her hair, but slicing the many hair pins and ponytail holders she had put in to keep her hair in the elaborate do she had worked so hard to put in it.

The bits of metal from the hair pins fell to the ground with a 'ting' as Ann's hair cascaded down from the bun and the braids that held it up and fell down her neck and back.

Ann froze as she patted her bangs, which slid towards her face, the braids she had put them in beginning to unwind. Her hands shook as she watched the braids unfurl in her hands.

After eight days of research, she finally found a hairstyle that she felt was perfect for Prom, it took two weeks to learn how to do it correctly and took four hours to do.

And now all of the time she spent on it amounted to nothing…

Her eyes were dark and angry, her whole body quaking grabbed the end of her long, black hair and quickly wrapped it around the ninja's neck, she then yanked on the end of her hair, smashing his face into the computer monitor, "DO YOU KNOW HOW LONG IT TOOK ME TO DO MY HAIR LIKE THAT?" she demanded as she slid her hair forward so the ninja's face was back away from the screen, "FOUR HOURS!" she screamed, yanking on her hair again and making his face smack into the screen, "DO YOU HEAR ME?" she cried, she then used her hair to slam his face against the screen with each word, "FOUR HOURS! FOUR HOURS OF HARD WORK AND YOU RUINED IT!" She then smacked his face against it once more and let him fall to the ground, she stood above the beaten ninja, panting heavily, then she took a deep breath, carefully pushed her hair out of her face then went back to typing and figuring out where everything was.

Jenny finished her last ninja with a few well aimed strikes to the head and chest, then she slid down low and kicked the ninja's feet out from under it and it fell onto it's back, smacking its head and knocking it out. Jenny waited, making sure her final opponent was down for the count, after seeing that the guy wasn't gonna get back up, she threw down the extinguisher on the ninja's belly then walked over and picked up her heels then stood behind Ann, "Looks like the others are doing okay." She said calmly, Ann nodded silently.

It was quiet for a moment, then she pulled out her phone, "Anny, I believe I found where these people are keeping them." She said in a calm voice. Jenny looked up and noticed a camera aimed right at them, she picked up the end of one of the broken swords and tossed it at the camera, destroying it.

. . .

Allbert, Larry, Terry, Mildred, Emma, Penny and Roxy were all speechless as they slowly turned to their mothers, their faces a mix of horrified and amazed.

"You took out an entire army of ninjas?" Penny asked her mom, stunned. Jenny was stunned too, she was stunned that Penny had spoken aloud in front of so many people, Penny was super shy and often spoke through Roxy when out in public.

Jenny smiled at her daughter, and opened her mouth to speak, only for her to notice that Patrick was shaking in his seat, his eyes wide and his mouth ajar, letting out a high pitched noise that made Jenny bite back a snort of laughter before answering her daughter, "Yes, Sweetie, we did."

"Cool!" Penny cried.

"Mother?" Emma called, looking just as concerned at her mother's actions as her elder siblings, who were too stunned to speak. Ann couldn't look at her children, she looked at her hands, "I'm not proud of what I did…" she murmured softly, she glanced up at her husband only to see a huge smile on his face, his eyes wide and filled with pride, his tongue poking out of his mouth just enough to see the silver stud glimmer in the light of the projector as he stared at her. She looked at him, felt a small smile crawl up her cheeks and sighed as she turned to her children and said, "But I don't regret what I did back then," she took her husband's hand, "I got your father back and anyway, that man was trying to chop my head in half, I was simply defending myself." Her children considered her point and nodded in agreement, the shock of their mother smashing someone's face against a hard surface repeatedly and shouting at them made them forget that she was retrieving their father and that someone was, in fact, trying to kill her.

Luca seemed stunned for a few moments too, before Andy called out, "Come on, Luca! We wanna see what my mom and Miss Rachel did!"

"Right, sorry. Coming right up!" he said, exiting the window and opening a new one.

Anny and Rachel sat with their heads up high, they knew there would be no chance that they wouldn't show what they had done back then, especially after seeing what the others had done, so they decided to sit up straight and just get it over with.

. . .

Anny and Rachel stood in the hallway, their knees bent and their eyes darting around, ready to take on anyone from any direction.

A few guards dashed up from the two directions their friends had gone, some holding knives while others barreled towards them with nothing but their flaring fists.

Rachel and Anny smirked as they came closer and closer. Finally, when the guards were close enough to attack, Rachel swatted the unarmed guards away with her fish, sending them smashing into walls with little effort. Anny used her long fake fingernails as wolverine claws and flicked their blades out of their hands with ease before she and Rachel sending them flying into the nearest wall with their fists.

In no time at all, the guards that had been sent to stop them were all slumped against the wall, groaning and struggling to pull themselves back up.

"Is this all you got?" Anny asked, sounding bored as she checked her nails for damage.

"Rachel agrees, this battle is lacking a satisfying challenger." Rachel sighed as she fluffed up her Nana's lucky ferret with one hand and let her fish dangle in the other.

"Yeah, the competent guards probably got their butts kicked by the others." Anny said flatly, kicking a knocked out guard with the toe of her shoe.

"Perhaps, Loud-Mouth-An girl, but we will not know this for certain until one of the others calls us and informs us of their victory." Rachel reminded as she checked the medallion around her neck to make sure she didn't get anything on it. (blood, spit, fish guts, etc.)

"I guess we'll just wait around for them to call." Anny huffed, not looking forward to just standing around doing nothing while her friends and her boyfriend could be in danger, but she knew that Rachel was right, until they had some information, it was best to stay where they were and wait.

Rachel patted her large, pink friend on the back, "The Daughter of a Shepherd believes it won't take long before our friends join us, so smile, Pout-Like-A-Trout-An girl, we shall be reunited with our men and be on our way to enjoy a night of merriment and youth soon enough!" Anny smiled at her foreign friend, "Yeah, I guess your right…" Suddenly a fierce gust of wind sliced the long fake fingernails on her left hand and cut into Rachel's fur and sent the nails to fall to the floor with a loud clinking sound while ferret hair gently cascaded to the ground, leaving the two teens shell-shocked as they looked up the hall to see a large group of ninjas standing roughly ten feet away from them.

Anny held up her trembling left hand to see that the fake nails had been cut down to the length of her real nails. She had thought really hard about what she should do with her nails. It took her a week of scouring through hundreds of magazines to figure out what she should do with her fingernails. She had to sit in that Nail Place for three hours to get those done, and it had cost her a fucking fortune too.

And now her nails were uneven and all that effort she had put into her stupid nails had been ruined.

And Anny McGee wasn't gonna take that shit lying down, dammit…

"You RAT BASTARDS!" she screeched as she scooped up the tips of the false fingernails they had chopped off and flung them at them like they were throwing knives. Two hit a ninja in the hand and made them drop their weapon, one hit another ninja in the shoulder, making them cry out and grip it in pain and the last nail was stopped with a ninja's blade, the fake nail sliced halfway thorough but stuck to the knife, despite the ninja's best efforts to shake it off.

Rachel's eyes were watering as she bent down to pick up the strands of ferret hair from the fur her Nana had entrusted her with that morning. It had been passed down for generations and the Daughter of a Shepherd was honored that her grandmother trusted her and let her wear it for the first time tonight for Prom, instead of being worn on her wedding day as was the tradition in her family. "Rachel, it is your last night to enjoy your youth before the responsibilities of adulthood befall you," her Nana had said in a soft voice, "Nana wants to Rachel enjoy her time with her friends and her beloved…" (Rachel got flustered and explained to her mother that nothing was set in stone yet and that even though she was very fond of Conner, she was unsure if the word 'beloved' was appropriate and babbled nervously until her mother and grandmother started to laugh and her Nana told her that…) "Nana and Mama want Rachel to enjoy her night without any chance of sadness befalling her, so Nana will allow her beautiful granddaughter to wear her Lucky Ferret to this dance to ensure that it will be festive and fun for Rachel and her friends!" Rachel had never felt so honored when her Nana wrapped it around her neck and let it drape around her shoulders, the fur was warm on her skin and soft to the touch.

And now her family's honor was tainted like the fallen hairs of the ferret on the floor…

"THE DAUGHTER OF A SHEPHERD MUST ERASE THE DISHONOR THOSE COWARDS HAVE BROUGHT UPON HER!" Rachel shouted, her eyes wide and bloodshot as she leapt forward, her fish held tightly in her hands and her friend right behind her.

The ninjas leapt towards their opponents, only to have their weapons blocked with a flurry of fish slaps and fake fingernail slashes and their faces caved in by female fists of fury within seconds. It didn't matter which girl the ninjas aimed for, the two covered for each other perfectly, leaving no open space for attack and hit their opponent's weak spots with no hesitation. Within ten minutes, the floor was covered in defeated ninjas and the two girls were huffing and puffing, their eyes red and their teeth gritted and pointed and their nostrils flared.

Until Anny's phone rang.

It was An, informing them that they had found the other people the bad guys had kidnapped and they were heading their way now.

As soon as the call ended, Anny received another call from Double-N, who told them that they knew where the boys were and they were coming over to lead them there.

Anny ended the call and looked at Rachel, "We're almost done here, Stretch." She said coolly. Rachel nodded, still angry, then noticed the camera above them and scowled, she would not have her shame recorded somewhere for others to someday view! So she took her fish and whacked the camera with it until it was destroyed.

. . .

Rick, Ralph, Connie, Andy, Mia and Tia turned to their mothers, proud.

"You did well, Mama." Rick said warmly.

"Agreed!" Ralph cried, "Mama's fish-scented duel was most exciting, yes?!"

"MAMA AVENGED THE LUCKY FERRET!" Connie cheered.

While Rachel was pleased that her children were proud of her, she was concerned about how her own Mama would feel about her ruining a family heirloom. She glanced back at her mother to see her looking solemn, but nodding, informing her that, while she was upset to see what had happened to the ferret, it was not as if she had meant to mess it up and that she had properly avenged her honor. Rachel sighed and relaxed in her chair… only to finally notice that Conner was stiff as a board as he stared wide-eyed at the black screen, the arms of his chair no longer attached to the chair but had been torn off during the video and were now steadily being crushed in her husband's hands. She felt a triumphant smile on her face that she had impressed him and her children, the shame from the incident finally lifted from her shoulders.

"Nice one, Mom." Andy purred, pleased with her performance.

"I can't believe those guys did that!" Mia said, her fists clenched. "Those guys so got what they deserved!" Tia agreed. Anny smirked, she knew her actions would go well with her kids, but she wasn't sure how Tee would react to it and she was now dying to see his face now that the video was over. She turned to him eagerly only to see him smiling proudly at her, remnants of drool on his chin that he had probably wiped off right before Rachel had destroyed the camera. "Hot enough for ya?" she teased.

"Yeah." He squeaked, then he cleared his throat and tried again, only this time managing to not squeak like his fourteen year old son had when he was first going through puberty. She chuckled and decided that she'd see just how much he'd liked it soon enough and to leave it for now. (After all their kids were right there.)

"Okay, I have some more footage, only it's with all of the girls and the other hostages." Luca announced as he pulled up another window and let it fill the screen, "I guess they all met up where Miss Anny and Miss Rachel had been, 'cause I found Ann and Miss Jenny leaving the security room and walking back the way they came and Miss An, Miss Karen and Miss Jamie lead Miss Zoe, Miss Clover and the other hostages the way they came, but I only could find them all in a group together, I couldn't find anything showing where they met up. Am I right?"

The mothers nodded, confirming his theory before he pressed play, then smiled as each of their husbands took their hands and gave it a firm squeeze as the past began to play on the screen again.

. . .

The girls lead the group of hostages through the hall, fuming and muttering about all the horrible things they'd do to the hook-handed freak who kidnapped their boyfriends and nearly fucked up their Prom Night, making Jamie and the hostages feel so frightened that they walked three paces behind them the whole way there.

When they finally got to the door, they saw it had a chair propped up under the knob to keep it closed.

Jenny kicked it so hard that it flew from under the door knob into the nearest wall and shattered on impact.

.

.

.

Meanwhile, inside, the guys had finally had enough. They were done waiting around for someone to open the damn door so they could rush them.

'We should just break the damn door down.' Patrick suggested. The others digested that a moment before nodding in agreement. The seven of them were the strongest guys in Peach Creek, surely they could break down a stupid door in no time and find their girlfriends and make it to the Prom before they closed the doors and locked them out. They readied themselves as if they were about to do a football play and Conner counted down for them, "4, 3, 2, 1 and…"

.

.

.

The girls had decided to brush off some of the dust and make sure they had no blood on them before opening the door, once they were cleaned off and were assured that they were blood free, they opened the door…

To see their boyfriends charge out and ram into a wall, then fall to the ground.

They groaned in pain as they pulled themselves off the floor, their girlfriends looking at them, concerned, while the adults behind them chuckled.

"Maybe that idea would have been better earlier, dude." Nate murmured. Pat glared at him as if to say, 'No, ya think?!'

"You guys okay?" Jamie asked them.

They nodded, their cheeks pink with embarrassment. An walked over to her brother and boyfriend and grabbed Sam by the shoulders and lifted him up to her eye level, a scowl on her face, "THE NEXT TIME AN TELLS YOU AND JAMIE TO STAY IN THE VAN, YOU STAY IN THE FUCKING VAN! DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME, BABY BROTHER?!"

Sam shook violently with fear, An never EVER swore, so for her to say something like that to him meant that she was really fucking mad. He nodded vigorously and yipped a "Yes, Ma'am!"

"GOOD!" his sister shouted, then her scowl dissolved into a look of relief as she pulled him into a gentle hug, "An is glad you are safe, Sam." She said softly. Sam hugged his sister back, "I'm sorry we left the van, An, we just wanted to help."

"I know you did, but you two could've gotten hurt."

"Next time we'll stay in the van, An, I promise."

"Good." An said, then gave her brother a kiss on the forehead and passed him over to Jamie, who hugged him tight as she began bawling and apologizing to him over and over again. An then hugged Jay tightly, "I'm glad you're okay, Jay." She murmured into his ear, he smiled and hugged her back, "I'm glad you're okay too, An."

The other couples were quick to embrace one another, grateful to be reunited.

"Hey! What are you girls doing here?!" A familiar voice demanded from behind the seven happy couples. The large group turned to see Mr. Dearly, his eyebrows furrowed and his face pulled into a large scowl.

That scowl quickly slid off his face as soon as he saw the six furious female faces beside the faces of his suddenly cheerful models. The color in his face followed once they began to stomp towards him, the crowd behind them beginning to cheer them on as they closed the distance.

Now, Mr. Dearly wasn't a fighter, especially against young ladies, however, he was a planner with a flair for fashion. He knew exactly how to stop these wrath-seeking women.

He dashed back down the hall, smirking to himself as he heard the sound of twelve heeled shoes behind him. He lit a match and tossed it so it would get stuck beside the red wax that kept the water in the sprinkler from raining down on him. He began counting down as he dashed a few feet away from the sprinkler, then suddenly stopped, turned around and smiled as he watched the girls turn into the hall and rush towards them.

His smile got bigger as the girls came closer and closer until…

"3… 2… and 1!" he purred, his eyes vibrant as he watched the red wax finally burn off and twenty gallons of water to push the girls down with great force and speed. He felt giddy as he watched the water pour down from the ceiling.

Their dresses would be absolutely ruined! Their make up would be dripping off of their faces! Their shoes would be too soggy to step in! Their hair would be total messes! They wouldn't be able to go to Prom looking like that!

Mr. Dearly began to cackle as the others caught up and saw the last of the water fall from the sprinkler and the girls finally pull themselves off of the floor, out of breath due to the sudden waterfall that was unleashed onto their heads that sent them sprawling onto the floor with the wind knocked out of them.

They stood up, looking down at their gowns, which were completely drenched in water, Jenny, whose dress was white, flushed as her undergarments came into view and quickly wrapped her arms around herself to hide them. Water was pouring down their hair, their make up, if not lying on the ground in a puddle was dripping off of their chins, and their shoes made squishing sounds that made them wince.

All of the time and energy and money they had put into their ensembles had just been undone.

"Aw, that is too bad, ladies." Mr. Dearly cooed, a triumphant grin on his face, "You were so close to spoiling the shoot that will revive my design career, but alas, you cannot go to your senior Prom looking like that!"

The six teens stood there, their wet bodies shaking from cold, their heads down with their hair blocking any glimpse of their faces.

Anny looked up at him, her hair framing her cold eyes, "All we wanted was to go to a school dance with our boyfriends without anything gettin' in our way…" she said in a serious tone, "Tell me, is that too much to ask?"

Ann lifted her head, her long black hair covering her right eye, "I don't believe so, Anny. It seems like a truly reasonable request." She replied coolly.

An's hair covered both eyes as she lifted her head, "It sounds good to me, Anny." She agreed.

Karen lifted her head, a relaxed smile on her face as she purred, "It sounds like fun."

Rachel had a single strand of blue hair was stuck on the corner of her mouth as she simply replied, "Agreed."

Jenny looked up, her face void of emotion, said nothing, only nodding in agreement with her friends.

"Hey ladies," Anny asked, wearing an impish smile so devious it could make a Kanker tremble in fear as she kept her eyes locked on Mr. Dearly. "What do you say we show this guy…" Mr. Dearly skittered backwards, his blood feeling like ice as he watched the girls sliver towards him, "what happens when you mess with a girl on her Prom night?" Mr. Dearly found himself backed up against a wall and slipped down to his bum, his hand and hook raised, ready to hold off the impending blows as the shadows of the six scorned and soaked ladies overwhelmed him, finally letting out a scream of terror once the last bit of light was blocked out and the girls' began to cackle darkly.

The Kankers, Nate, Conner and Patrick were torn between being terrified and being turned on as they watched their captor suffer the beating of a lifetime from their wet girlfriends.

Sam was simply terrified and Jamie was cheering for her friends along with Mr. Dearly's other kidnapping victims.

Once the girls had finally finished, they stepped back, panting for a moment before moving their hair out of their faces and looking back down at their outfits.

They were in worse shape then before due to the blood that had splattered all over them. An's eyes were the first ones to water as she looked at her once beautiful gown, Ann and Jenny were next and were followed by Karen, Anny and Rachel, who bit their lips, trying to hold back the wails of anguish that they couldn't go to Prom looking like this!

The designers rushed back towards the direction they had came from while the stylists and make up artists rushed over towards the crying girls and dragged them back into the dressing room the boys had been holed up in for a large part of this chapter. Jamie dashing in behind them and slamming the door in the boys faces when they attempted to join them inside and cheer them up.

After a few moments to recover from the shock of having a door slammed in their faces, Sam knocked on the door.

"YOU CAN'T COME IN!" Jamie shouted through the door, "YOU NEED TO WAIT!"

"Wait for what?" Sam asked, feeling drained from this whole experience.

"JUST WAIT!" She shrieked, making the guys jump away from the door. The guys looked at each other, shrugged, then walked to the wall opposite from the door and leaned against it, waiting…

The designers returned with racks of dresses and were let inside and slammed the door behind them.

After what felt like forever (Author: It was five minutes.) they decided to take a risk and listen to the door.

All they heard was muffled voices (none of which were their girlfriends), the sound of hairdryers blowing, scissors snipping, something was being sprayed from a can.

None of which really told them anything so they went back to leaning against the wall and waiting impatiently for their girlfriends to emerge from the dressing room.

After a long wait (Author: the total amount of time they were back there was thirty minutes, and they were total messes.) the door finally opened.

Jamie skipped out of the door wearing a pink poofy dress with ribbon and frills and sparkles, her hair was pulled into a pretty French braid and wore shades of light pink make up. Sam opened his mouth to question as to why Jamie was all dressed up, but she grabbed his arm, began bouncing on her toes and sang, "They look so amazing!"

Once the guys saw their girlfriends, they immediately agreed.

An's hairstyle had been restored and she still wore her grandmother's gold and emerald jewelry, but her dress was now a golden color with thicker straps on her shoulders, the skirt was frilled and cascaded down to her golden heeled sandals. Her make up was light on her cheeks and lips but she wore dark eye-shadow, eye-liner and mascara.

Jay was two feet up in the air with his ponytail helicopter propeller with a dopey grin on his face the moment he saw her, An yanked him back down to ground level and hugged him tight.

Ann's hairstyle was similar to her earlier one, only the braids now held up a much smaller bun on the back of her head and the rest of her hair flowed down her back and shoulders. She still had her locket, but she no longer had gloves or a wrap. Her dress was now was held up with a single sleeve that wrapped around one shoulder, it was still layered, only instead of the neat, frilled layers, these layers had jagged bottoms that all but screamed 'punk' and the gown was now blue and purple. She wore brighter make up, her lips now red and her eye make up was made up of bright blues and she had blue heels on her feet.

Larie's tongue had extended so far from his mouth that it was coiled up on the ground as he panted and looked his gal up and down. Ann gently cupped his face with her hands and kissed his nose, making his tongue fly back into his mouth and his hands immediately wrap around her waist and pull her closer for another kiss.

Anny's hair and golden jewelry were the same, but the fake nails had been completely removed and her real nails had been done bright red. Her make up was darker in hue, her lips were deep red and her eyes were done in a dark purple. Her dress was now red and sleeveless, however the bodice of the dress was curved upwards by her chest, almost looking like sleeves, and a long slit climbed up her legs and stopped a few inches below a belt made up of gold hoops on her hip. Her feet were adorned with red heels.

Tee's jaw fell to the ground with a BAM! His eyes wide and unsure where to settle on his girlfriend. Anny chuckled and wrapped her arms around his neck (* and whispered, "Hey Tee, wanna know a secret?" Tee's jaw retracted back into it's rightful place before he nodded vigorously. She then leaned over and murmured, "This slit stops just below my panties." *) She straightened and looked down at her boyfriend, ready to see fireworks fly out of his head. He instead looked up at her with an eager smirk, "I'd need to see some proof, Missy." Anny laughed.

Jenny's pearls were still intact, but her hair was now loose and wavy. Her make up was made up of bright, bold colors. Her dress was now a navy blue with a high slit on the side and a 'V' of fabric that sprang up from the middle of her bosom and wrapped around her neck. A pair of navy heeled sandals graced her feet.

Patrick's babbling was so fast it almost looked like he was just barely opening and closing his mouth like a fish, but Jenny could hear his voice reach a high pitch that would make dogs cry out in pain. She pulled her boyfriend into a kiss that 'silenced' him and made him become putty in her hands.

Karen's silver and crystal jewelry was the same, but her hair was now in a low bun and she wore green flats. Her gown was green with three inch wide off the shoulder sleeves and had layered fabric that started on her hip and stopped at her knees that made her movements seem more flowy. Her make up was in shades of browns and tans except for her lips, which were bright red.

Nate's mouth transformed into a waterfall within moments, Karen carefully tiptoed over the river of drool that was pouring out of her boyfriend's mouth and whispered, "I've gotten soaked once already tonight, and as sweet as this is, I think we should stop the waterworks." She then gently pushed his jaw up, closing his mouth and stopping the flow of water, "Thanks." Nate finally managed once he finally got some moisture back into his mouth so he could open his mouth back up and speak.

Rachel was, once again, pushed out the door. Her Mama's medallion was in it's rightful place around her neck but her Nana's Lucky Ferret was now draped around her waist, almost as a belt of sorts, the damage done to it seemed to have vanished. Her hair was still curly and loose, her make up was made up of dark colors, black, dark gray, raspberry (for her lips). Her dress was black and stopped at her knees, there was a circle of black cloth around her neck that was connected with two strips of fabric that left a triangle of her skin in the front for all to see. She wore black flats and a nervous expression on her face.

The steam that screamed from Conner's ears pushed his hat off of his head and left it to hover six inches over his head while he watched her wave her hand in front of his face and call his name for a minute or two before clasping her hands over his ears and causing his hat to flop back onto his head, momentarily blocking Rachel from sight and giving him some time to cool down, "Are you back to your senses, Cowpoke-Conner?" she asked him. He smiled calmly at her, "Yeah, Rach, I am, thanks."

"Well now that you're Prom perfect once again," Clover said, "You kids should head over to the Prom before they lock you out."

"But what about you guys?" Jay asked them.

"We'll wait for the police and explain what happened." Zoe replied, then made a shooing motion with her hands, "Now you kids go have fun, we'll handle all this!"

The teens nodded, and thanked them as they dashed towards the nearest exit and fled to the van with the adults waving good bye to them…

No one noticing the hook hand of Mr. Dearly moving along the floor as the teens left the building.

. . .

The children looked at their mothers, unsure how to respond to the horrible beating they had just witnessed their mothers committing. Finally, the girls shook their heads and joined in a chorus of 'serves him right.'

"What happened next?" Kim asked.

"We drove to Prom." Her mother said simply.

. . .

After everyone piling into the van, Anny instructed An to drive to the Prom, which shocked all the guys except for Sam, who immediately clung to the nearest solid object in the van while Jamie helped pass the corsages back to their correct owners.

"What's with Sam?" Jay asked as he slipped into the passenger's seat beside An.

"We'll explain in a moment," Ann assured him as she leaned over his seat and pressed a button with the word 'EMERGENCY' on it in bold black letters, making seatbelts and oxygen masks pop out all over the van. Sam began strapping himself and Jamie with as many seatbelts as he could.

"You see," Ann began as she walked over to Larie and began strapping them into the van, "when we all received our licenses, we all decided to go for a week long road-trip and during that trip we discovered…"

"That An drives like a get-away driver on crack." Anny finished for her as she helped strap Tee down.

Jay looked at his girlfriend, who smiled eagerly as she shouted, "NOW IT IS MY TURN TO DRIVE!" and stomped hard on the gas, sending all of them jerking backwards as it charged out of the parking lot and out onto the road, sending some cars swerving to avoid a collision.

The others pulled themselves off of the floor and began frantically buckling themselves while Sam murmured, "Mom, make her stop. Mom, make her stop. Mom, make her stop…"

"With Lumpy's crazy driving, we'll be at the Prom in no time!" Anny cheered.

Then something rammed them from behind, sending the whole gang lurching forward. "What the..!" Karen cried.

Jay looked in the rearview mirror and saw an angry Mr. Dearly driving his limo, "It's Mr. Dearly!" he shouted, "I think he just rammed us with his limo!"

The girls looked livid at the sound of the man's name.

"THAT'S IT!" Anny shouted, "I'M DONE WITH THIS ASSHOLE!" she then reached into a duffel and pulled out what looked like one of her sister's stink bombs only with several floating orbs inside.

"ANNY, NO!" Ann cried, "IN THESE CONDITIONS THAT BOMB IS MOST LIKELY TO BLOW UP IN OUR FACES!"

"Bomb?" Nate cried. Ann nodded, "Inside those orbs are the chemical components that make up nitroglycerin, when thrown or launched, the orbs containing the chemicals break, the chemicals mix and…"

"Boom." Larie finished for her, she nodded and looked at her hysterical pink haired friend, "With An's driving and that man…" The van lurched forward and a crunching sound came from the back doors of the van, Anny wobbled on her feet, but stayed up right, the bomb's interior orbs moved a bit, but did not collide or explode, much to her relief.

"RAMMING INTO US LIKE A WILD BOAR!" Ann shouted angrily, "IT'S TOO RISKY!"

"What if we used the bomb as a buffer?" Larie suggested. The others looked at him as he further explained his idea, "Since this guy will not back off, we need to create some space between us, if we aim it just right, maybe we could use that bomb to do that and have An drive us to Prom with no crazy guy ramming us…" he rubbed the back of his head, "Only thing is, we need a way to get from the blast zone…"

Patrick mouthed something and Jenny's eyes lit up, "Hey, YEAH!" she cried before giving her boyfriend a smooch on the cheek, "THAT'S BRILLANT, PAT!" she then turned to the group, "Pat asked if we could launch it with some of the leftover seatbelts onto the pavement." Ann and Larie looked at each other, silently calculating the idea, "We'd still need to get out of the blast zone before the chemicals combine." Larie explained.

Jay heard this and figured that, if Double-N put an emergency seatbelt and oxygen masks, she probably put a turbo button of some sorts in here.

"Hey An, is there a button Double-N told you to never press in here?" he asked her. An smiled and pointed to a big red button next to the 'emergency' button.

"HEY GUYS, I THINK WE FOUND A WAY TO GET OUT OF THE BLAST ZONE!" Jay cried as he indicated the red button An had showed him. Anny smiled impishly, "Then I believe we have a plan." Rachel and Jenny made a make-shift sling shot out of the seatbelts and oxygen masks, while Anny handed Karen the bomb and she, Ann and Jamie walked over to the back doors, "Remember Lumpy, when Sockhead says 'Now' you can press the big red button!" Anny called out to her chin-less friend, who bounced a bit in her seat at the news.

"BUT ONLY ONCE!" Ann added, that deflated An's joy, but only for a moment.

The van jarred forward again, Anny, Ann and Jamie bounced against the back doors.

Jay checked the mirror, "He's as far back as he's gonna let himself go, guys!" he announced.

Anny pushed open one door while Ann and Jamie pushed the other open as well, leaving the back open for them to see that the limo was barely a car length away from them. Karen closed one eye as she took aim at the pavement between them and the crazy guy with the hook hand behind them. She then smiled as she released the bomb and watched it fly out the doors and towards the pavement. Rachel and Jenny helped the other girls close the doors shut once the bomb was out of the van and Ann cried out, "NOW, AN!"

"PUSH THE BUTTON!" An cheered as she banged her fist into the big red button, two jets popping out of the side of the van and sending out flames and launching them forward away from the blast zone. They're faces were pulled back from the force of the rockets and An's driving.

After a few minutes of insanity, they found themselves suddenly skidding to a stop and the girls clung to the seatbelts closest to them for dear life as An cried, "WE'RE HERE!"

Once the van was fully stopped and everyone had a moment to recover from the ride, they unbuckled themselves and stood shakily on their feet. Tee slipped out of the van first and held out his arm for Anny, who smiled as she carefully slipped out of the back and took it. Larie was next to hop out, he then held his arms out for Ann to slip into so he could help her down while giving her a peck on the nose. Conner hopped out of the van and offered his hands for Rachel, which she only took when Karen and Jenny told her that hopping out of the van like he had would hurt, so she let him help her out of the van. Nate was next as he helped Karen out of the van, murmuring how awesome her aim had been and making her flush. Pat sat on the edge of the van, pulled Jenny sideways into his lap and slid out, holding her princess style, making his friends scowl that they didn't think to do that too. Jay hopped out of the passenger's side seat and ran over to the driver's side, offering her his hand. She took it happily and then the two walked towards the back and helped Sam and Jamie out of the van, Sam still shaking from the drive.

They then walked into the Prom in pairs, arms linked.

"Hold up!" the Vice Principal called out to them as they were about to walk into the dance, "You kids are late, you can't go in." the Vice Principal then squinted, "And are those middle schoolers with you?" The teens gave him guilty smiles and shook their heads no, but no dice, "You kids can't go in there."

"Vice Principal Bailey, please be reasonable!" Ann pleaded, only for Jamie to hold up her hand and walk towards the Vice Principal, "Excuse me, Mister, but can I speak to you in private for a moment?" The Vice Principal paused, then nodded, taking Jamie aside for a moment.

After five minutes, Jamie skipped back to the group, "We can all go in now!" she sang. The teens did not question how she convinced Vice Principal Bailey, instead they rushed into the dance with giant smiles on their faces. Sam, however, did ask, "What did you say to him?"

"Nothing he wants anyone to know." She said cheerfully before pulling him into the dance.

Anny, Tee, Jenny and Pat had a dance off for a while, Jenny and Pat's ninja dance skills verses Anny and Tee's know-how. Ann, Larie, Karen and Nate just slow danced for a majority of the Prom, enjoying the other's company and speaking in hushed tones. Conner was softly explaining how to slow dance to Rachel, who was having a bit of trouble walking in her shoes, let alone dancing.

An, Jay, Sam and Jamie just goofed off and enjoyed themselves the whole night, livening up the party and pulling their friends into a long conga line that the whole senior class ended up joining. After the line got too long and everyone laughed about it, the Prom Queen and King was revealed to be An and Jay, who were lifted above their friends heads and carried around for a minute or two before they were put down to retrieve their crowns and have their dance.

All in all, they all had so much fun at the Prom and were glad they had made it in time.

Jay drove home (since everyone else was either exhausted or still shook up from An's driving earlier) and stopped the van in front of Ann's house, and the seven couples wished each other a good night before each guy lead his girl to her doorstep and softly and sweetly wished her a good night.

. . .

"And that's it. That's what happened." Tee concluded.

The three youngest children, Stella, Connie and Emma yawned and rubbed their eyes. "I believe it's time for certain individuals to go to bed." Ann said softly as she scooped up her sleepy three year old, who didn't bother fighting and instead curled up in her mother's arms. Her best friends were not as agreeable.

"I'm not tired!" Stella whined with a yawn when her mother picked her up.

"Niether is Connie." Connie declared as she stubbornly rubbed her eyes as her mom lifted her into her arms.

"I think it's time for everyone to go to bed." Jay said, glancing at his watch, "It's almost midnight."

The others agreed and all the families went to their respective homes, the fathers gave each other knowing smiles, pleased that they had ended their story there…

Even though the story didn't exactly end there.

. . .

* A Quick Montage *

Sam

.

Sam was the first one in bed, after getting a kiss from his girlfriend he walked home and went to sleep.

.

Conner

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Conner was led from Rachel's front step to her shed, she then stood there in front of him, looking unsure of herself and fiddling with the circle of fabric around her neck. "Rach, you okay?" he finally asked. Rachel looked up at him, obviously conflicted, "Rachel is… unsure how to… proceed." She said softly. "Proceed?" He repeated, "Proceed with what?"

Rachel rubbed her arms, and sighed, "The others have all… progressed in some way in their… relations since Christmas, yes?"

"Yeah? So?"

"So do Rachel and Conner need to do so as well?" she asked him. Conner was surprised for a moment then asked, "Would you comfortable with that if we did?" Rachel was surprised by the question but didn't answer, she only looked at her feet, a little ashamed of herself. Conner smiled, took her hands and said, "I ain't gonna rush ya, Rach, we can go at whatever pace you'd like, okay?" She smiled and gave him a tight hug, "Thank you Conner." She whispered. Conner held her tight for a while then walked her back to her front porch, gave her a kiss and wished her a good night before shoving his hands into his pockets and walking to Nate's house thinking, 'I'm either a total idiot or a total gentleman.' He glanced back at her house and smiled as he turned back around and said, "Both."

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Nate

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Nate had been dragged inside and then snuck up into Karen's bedroom for a make out session that was so hot the windows actually fogged up.

No, seriously, they actually fogged up.

Which was good, because then Karen decided that she was ready for second base and neither of them wanted anyone else to see what they were doing. (Not that anyone had the guts to peep on someone the Kanker Brothers hung out with.)

Nate snuck out of her home at two in the morning covered in lipstick, hickies and a big smile on his face and floated home and woke Conner up with a text to let him in.

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Patrick

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Patrick and Jenny snuck up the stairs and enjoyed an evening of alone time (albeit quietly as to not wake up Jenny's parents, but Patrick never had much trouble when it came to not making noise.) and falling asleep in each other's arms…

Until at five am, Jenny's dad came in to wake her and Patrick had to hide under her bed until he did so, then he gathered his things, gave her a smooch on the cheek and escaped out the window and ran to Nate's house, waking Conner and Nate with a text reading 'let me in, I'm half naked.'

Conner and Nate let him in, only after sending a reply text saying, 'Ew, dude, TMI.'

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Jay

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An had let Jay in before Sam got home, so while Sam was walking up the steps to his room, thinking Jay had given An a kiss good night and gone to Nate's house like the other guys, in actuality, Jay and An were throwing their clothes all over the piles of crap in An's room, swapping spit.

Neither Sam or his dad knew that morning when An joined them for breakfast that she had just given her boyfriend a kiss good byeand watched him scamper off to Nate's house with most of his clothes tucked under his arm and his phone in his hand, frantically texting them to let him in before An's dad saw him.

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Larie

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Ann opened the door to her home and looked back at her boyfriend, her face pink, "W-would you like to come in?" she stuttered. Larie smiled eagerly as he scooped her up, princess style, gave her a big smooch, closed the door behind them and carried her all the way up to her bedroom.

Her parents never found out what they had been up to, because Larie had found a way to make sure they weren't heard. (Kissing her so she wouldn't be heard when she'd cry out.) So he got to enjoy having his girl in his arms for the rest of the night. However, Larie made sure he was giving her a kiss good bye before hopping out of her bedroom window with his belongings at 6:30 am, climbing down the tree by her bedroom window and dashing to Nate's house, his fingers typing on his phone, asking the others to open up and let him in.

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Tee

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Tee still couldn't believe it.

He was lying in Anny's bed, the two of them still holding each other and were still naked from earlier and he still couldn't believe that they just had sex.

And it was fucking awesome.

He finally fell asleep, his snores making Anny smile and dream about her boyfriend beating up birds.

He took his time getting his stuff from her home and left out her bedroom door, giving her kisses before strutting over to Nate's place, texting the guys to let him in.

(End of Montage)

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When Nate's parents came to check on them at noon (also to offer them food), they found the boys wearing boxers and undershirts (seemingly so tired from the nights events that they had barely managed to remove most of their suits) and sleeping on the couch, the arm chair and on the sleeping bags the boys had piled onto the floor the day before in anticipation of staying the night here. Nate's parents were satisfied with the evidence they could see and assumed that all the boys came straight here after dropping their girlfriends at their homes.

After being awaken and fed, the others packed up their stuff, and got rides home. Pat and Conner got rides from their parents, but the Kankers, on the other hand, they got a ride home from their grandma, who insisted on hearing about every single stinking detail and informed them that she was going to have the girls tell her everything that happened too.

Knowing their grandma like they did, they told her everything. Later on, the Ans would too.

. . .

Tee Kanker smiled as he herded his children up two flights of stairs and walked back to his own bedroom with his wife, "What are you smiling about?" she asked him. He gave her rear a firm slap, "Just reminiscing." He purred, she shook her head at him, unable to hide her growing smile, "As if we hadn't had enough of that tonight." She chuckled before kissing his cheek, "Good night, Tee." She said softly before changing into her nightgown. "Aw, so we're not gonna relive our Prom Night?" Tee teased.

Anny rolled her eyes and gave him a coy smile, "Only if you think you can keep up, we're not teenagers anymore, ya know." Tee smiled deviously, "Don't I know it." he purred as he gave his wife a tender kiss.

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Larie had tucked his kids into bed and went to his bedroom, where his wife sat in their bed with her arms crossed and an angry pout on her face, "I cannot believe you told our children about that time in Somalia!" she cried, obviously upset.

"I didn't tell them about Somalia, I told them you used a bomb in Somalia, I never gave them the details." Larie rationalized as he slipped beside her and wrapped an arm around her shoulders, hoping to smooth things over so he wouldn't end up on the couch tonight.

"But they continuously asked about it all the way home! After all the things they saw and heard tonight, I don't think I could handle them knowing about what happened during that week!"

"Ya don't have to, Muffin, I told all five of 'um that if they want to know what happened there, they would have to wait until they all finished college." Larie explained. Ann's pose relaxed a bit and Larie felt her begin to lean towards him, "But what if they decide not to go to college?" she asked wearily.

"Then they'll never know what happened in Somalia." Larie said plainly, Ann gave him a small smile and wrapped her arms around his neck, snuggling with him. "You realize you'll be the one explaining everything, correct?"

"Yup."

"Good." She whispered before kissing his cheek. Larie smiled and licked his lips as he pulled his wife close and turned off the light.

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Jay saw to both of his children before giving them each a kiss good night and turning out the lights before walking into his own room and finding his wife flipping through the album, looking at their Prom pictures, "Even though there were some scary parts, Prom was fun, right, Jay?" Jay smiled as he slipped into bed beside his wife, "Yeah, it was a lot of fun, An." he said before kissing her forehead and turning out the lights, the two curling up in each other's arms before falling asleep.

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Author's Note: sorry about the confusion on the first day this chapter was up, guys, I had no idea the first transitions didn't show up until I checked it the next day.