03x24: The Greatest Night of His Life

THe FS Night is here. That's really all you have to know.

THE GREATEST NIGHT OF HIS LIFE

 

     He suited up with his Viking costume from How to Train Your Dragon. He turned the band to Space Manipulation and hid it in his sleeves. He teleported to the school gates.

     “Hey, Austin!” Dory said.

     “Hey, there. Umm… where’s Janella?”

     “Not yet here,” Queennie said.

     “DUDE!” Bianca yelled from inside as she went outside the gates.

     “Dude, where’s Pooh?”

     “Still somewhere…”

     “Aww…”

     “Just kidding. Here he comes right now.”

     The anticipation was great. There were no pounding steps; it was just Ernst walking out of the gates with a Winnie the Pooh costume except for the head and the feet. Pooh’s head was a hood that he had to put on and he was wearing rubber shoes.

     “Well, hey there Pooh, found your way out of the toilet?” Austin asked.

     “Hardy-harr-harr. Let’s go in.”

     “Can’t. Waiting for my partner.”

     Cue screech tease.

     “Okay guys. I get it. You do realize that this is going to be the best night of my life but I’m not expecting it. It’s always like that. I expect the best and the best happens but I expect the worst and it turns out to be totally awesome. So I’m going with the flow this time.”

     “Speak of the devil, here they are.”

     Austin looked towards the frontmost gates as Janella, Nica, Alyssa, Mo-on, and Rica walked past. Only Janella and Nica were in costume though.

     “Hey there Cowgirl,” Austin said to Janella, who was in a cowgirl costume. Toy Story 3 left its mark alright.

     Cue Screech tease.

     “What are you supposed to be?” Ernst asked Nica.

     “Cruella De Vil. You’re damn lucky to be spot-free,” Nica said.

     “Hey, time to go in,” Austin said.

     Janella left her bag at the gate with the others as they went in. They went towards the tables under the bridge where all the advisers were situated.

     Austin, Dory, and Queennie went to Sr. Jojo and Ms. Mac. Janella, Ernst, and Bianca went to Ms. Anne and Ms. Laurice.

     “Hello sir,” Austin said as he signed on the time-in sheet.

     “Here’s your ticket. Enjoy!” he said.

     Austin went over to the DDN table.

     “Hey, pick up the pace.”

     “Thank you, miss,’ Janella said.

     Ernst stepped forward to sign.

     “Ernst,” Sr. Edmond started, “this is the only time I saw Winnie the Pooh wearing rubber shoes.”

     They all laughed at this crack at Ernst costumes among the many to come.

     Alyssa, Rica, and Mo-on said good bye and good luck as they went back to the hotel.

    

They finally went in through the ticket check and there were tables for each section. They sat down for a while.

     “Janella…” Austin said. She looked. “You look beautiful.”

     She stopped for a while to think of a response.

     “Dati pa”

     A loose translation would be “Since before”. Austin smiled since every time he would say that before, she’d shrug it off.

     “What are the tables for?” Ernst asked.

     “I think it’s for the bags or something,” Austin said.

     “Oh, I guess I’ll just get my bag,” Janella said.

     “Don’t worry. I’m already there.”

     Austin rushed to the gate but asked the ticket check people some questions.

     “Don’t you have a cheap stamp or sticker or something?”

     “No…” Ivy said. “Wait, it’s okay, I know you anyway.”

     “Thanks!”

     Austin ran out thinking that she made up for her bitchy remark earlier that day.

     He went to the guard and picked up her bag and walked towards the CWS again. On his way there, he ran into Sean.

     “Nice bag, Austin!” he said mockingly.

     “You do know this is hers.”

     “Nice one, pal. Good luck.”

     “You ain’t coming in?”

     “Of course I am.”

     “No costume, no entry.”

     “Screw the rules, I have POWERS!”

     “Well you did pay for a ticket, right?”

     “Of course.”

     “Okay. See ya later.”

     Austin carried on until he ran into Janella, Nica, and Bianca.

     “Hey, where are you going?”

     “Darn it, Austin, I said I was getting it,” she said.

     “I said I got it. Want me to carry it for you?”

     “It’s fine. I can handle it.”

     She took the bag from him and they went back through the gates. She set it down on the table and they just waited for the party to get started.

     A few notable costumes were the following: A lot of people dressed up as anime characters who wear civilian clothes, Bianca was probably one of those as well as Bam and Jericho. Johan was Genie from Aladdin. Ivan was a character from Naruto.  Maan was Snow White (presumably to Ernst’s amusement).  Ymara was Blossom Candace from Phineas and Ferb. Everyone wanted Renz be Shrek but he didn’t go. Sean was actually Ben 10 from Alien Force, hence the seemingly civilian get-up. His fatal flaw was he didn’t have the Omnitrix. Another flaw was that a lot of people thought of this as well, Job was one of them.

    

The party finally started and the dance floor was virtually empty. TEAGS was “dancing” in the sidelines.

     “Come on guys, go in the middle. The rest of us will follow,” Austin said.

     “No, no thanks…’ Ivan said.

     “Bianca, go!”

     “Dude, you go, we’ll follow.”

     “Ernst?”

     “I’m a bear.”

     “D****t, fine.”

     Austin did something that he probably would have never done two or maybe three years ago, he went partially into the dance floor and danced to the painfully generic dance music.

     “Well, I’m in here, if you don’t follow, I’ll pull you in myself.”

     “No thanks…” Ivan said.

     Then the most horrifying thing possible happened. The Mastermind came out of nowhere and killed them all… At least that’s what Austin wished had happened. What really happened was the speakers began to blurt out the intro to one of the most atrocious songs ever.

     “You know you love me!”

     “OH S**T! GET ME OUT OF THE DANCE FLOOR, D****T!” he yelled at TEAGS.

     “Just shout whenever, and I’ll be there!”

     Austin rushed to the sidelines. Ironically, this was the song that played when everyone rushed to the dance floor.

     “Okay, new plan, we wait for this song to finish. That’s when we go back in. Meanwhile, I’m gonna go to the table where my little angel is at.”

     “I’ll sit this one out,” Ivan said as he and Jericho sat in the sidelines and brought out their PSP’s.

     “Come on, guys! You paid for this party to sit down, play with your PSP’s, and eat Kentucky Fried Chicken?!”

     “Actually it’s Kenny Rogers…” Ernst pointed out.

     “THAT IS BESIDE THE POINT! You gotta live a little.”

     They didn’t mind him and focused on their PSP’s. Austin suddenly felt depressed because this was exactly what he was doing in the 5^th Grade Bequeathal Party.

     Austin went all the way to the back where the Patola Family was situated. Ernst and Bianca came with him.

     “Hey there,” Austin said to Janella.

     “Hi.”

     “Wanna dance on the dance floor, grooving to the song that directly follows this farce of a musical arrangement?” Austin asked everyone there.

      “This is not a musical arrangement,” Ernst said.

     “That’s beside the point. Anyway, wanna go?”

     Janella, Dory, Queennie, Nica, and the three TEAGS members went towards the dance floor just as the wretched song had finished.

     “Hey guys! You made it!” Marise said, greeting them. She was with their friends. She high fived everyone in the group except for Ernst because that’s the way the world rolls.

     They continued to the center of the dance floor. Surprisingly, Ernst was dancing and Bianca was not.

     “This is surprising… Ernst is dancing and Bianca is not. Is this a sign for the end of all things?” Austin said.

      “Well, Ernst has a reason to dance. He’s a bear.”

     “And you are what exactly? I doubt you’re Buttercup from PowerPuff Girls Z.”

     “You watch that?”

     “Cartoon Network is 90% commercials. Not seeing that blasted commercial is impossible if that was the only channel I watch. That is exactly why I stick to movies. Anyway, I made a new dance move. It’s called, ‘pull the hood over Ernst’.”

     Austin shuffled over to Ernst and grabbed his hood. He pulled it over his face, putting him in a full body Winnie the Pooh costume.

     “Hey, having fun?” Austin asked Janella.

     “Sort of. Why?”

     “It’s a pretty generic question. Anyway, I’m gonna shuffle over to those DRIX fellows, wanna join me?”

     “No thanks. Go right ahead.”

    

Austin went to Laurenz, Sean, Bam, and Aaron who were dancing in front of the stage. Ernst followed soon after.

     They were severely rocking the dance floor and both of them joined in.

     Job came in and Aaron gave him a piggyback ride. While up high, Job started doing some crazy dance moves with his hands.

     He got back down and out of nowhere, a freshman non-verbally challenged Laurenz to a dance-off by dancing in front of him. He replied by doing even more wicked dance moves to which the freshman replied by topping his dance moves.

     Soon, the two were surrounded by freshmen and sophomores alike. They were trying to top each other until they got tired. They shook each other’s hands and everyone in the crowd cheered.

     After this, Austin and Janella were just chilling at the DDN table, tired from all the dancing. Johan was watching Jericho and Ivan waste their ticket money playing video games. Bianca was watching Nica playing with a PSP. At least she already danced.

     After a while, Austin’s costume began to heat him up and suffocate him.

     “Hey, are you okay?”

     “Yeah… Yeah, I’m fine.”

     “Okay everyone. Dinner will be served to your tables. Please take your bags off of the tables,” Sr. Leo said.

     “Oh… so that’s what the tables are for,” Ernst said.

     “Thanks for pointing that out, Winnie,” Bianca said.

     “I AM AN ANTHROPOMORPHIC BEAR!”

     “Whatever, Crimson Chin.”

    

Dinner was Kenny Rogers' fried chicken with rice, gravy, and a complementary muffin. Austin wasn’t in the mood for muffins so he left it untouched but he completely gobbled up the chicken and rice.

     After the meal, he was full and the suffocation was getting worse.

     “Austin, you don’t look so good,” Janella said.

     “Exactly. I’ll be back.”

     Austin stood up and went to the restroom to splash some water on his face. On his way, he ran into Ernst.

     “Dude, you don’t look too good.”

     “I can’t breathe. I’m gonna splash some water on my face.”

     “I’ll be right there. I just gotta tell Bianca something.”

     “Good luck with your date.”

     “Hey!”

     He went in, looked in the mirror, and talked to himself.

     “Come on, Austin. You finally got her to be your partner. Your costume is awesome too. Don’t let this ruin your night!”

     He loosened the Velcro on the belt he was wearing. He stepped back out and bought a bottle of iced tea from Ymara’s stand.

     “Hey, Austin. You don’t look too good.”

     “I am aware of that…”

     “How’s your date?”

     “It’s great.”

     “Nice. Here’s your iced tea.”

     “Thanks.”

     As he was walking back to the DDN table, he ran into Maan.

     “Austin, you don’t look so good.”

     “Funny, Ernst said that to me earlier.”

     “Hardy-harr-harr.”

     “Funny, he said that too.”

     “Anyway, are you okay?”

      Austin felt the heat again.

     “No I’m not. Jeez, is it really this hot in October?”

     Austin went back in the restroom to splash some more water on his face. He loosened the belt a bit more and went back out. Janella was waiting for him.

     “There he is,” Maan said.

     “Hey! Are you okay?”

     She grabbed his arm and cooled him down.

     “Oh thank goodness. I totally forgot that.”

     “If you needed to cool down, you could’ve asked… or did it yourself.”

     “Thanks for the cooldown. Let’s head back.”

     They went back to the DDN table and waited for something interesting to happen.

    

Eventually, something did happen. A band of Juniors led by Maynard Chua and Migz Ramoy stepped up and took the mic.

     “Hey guys! For you freshmen, maybe you remember us from your Bequeathal Party last year. Anyway, here we are again…”

     They did the usual intro stuff and performed some songs. Among them were Dance, Dance by Fall Out Boy, Megalomaniac by Incubus, Mr. Brightside by The Killers, and A Thousand Miles by Vanessa Carlton.

     All of those songs were preceded by a clever segue into the song’s title except for Megalomaniac which was probably too difficult to segue into.

     After they were finished, it was the moment they had been leading up to all night. A slow song played while Austin was with Sean and Aaron.

     “Oh man, it’s the slow songs…” Austin said.

    “Dude...” Sean said as he looked Austin straight in the eye. “Go for it.”

     Austin ran towards the DDN table but turned back Sean to ask one question.

     “Wait a second. What’s the title of this song?”

     “Especially for You by MYMP.”

     “Thanks a lot, Sean! I owe you one!”

     “No problem.”

     Austin went to the DDN table where Janella was standing with Nica, Dory, and Queennie.

     “May we request all couples to proceed to the dance floor,” The guy upfront said.

     Out of nowhere, Daniella grabbed Janella’s hand and started dancing with her for around fifteen seconds. She stopped and handed Janella’s hand to Austin.

     “What are you waiting for?” Nica asked.

     Austin took a deep breath. This was the moment he has been waiting for all his life.

     “Janella… may I have this dance?”

     She smiled and they went to the dance floor. Nica and everyone else there gave them the loudest and most appropriate screech tease yet.

   

Austin tried directing her hands but she pushed his hands away, looked around, and got the idea.

     He put his hands on her waist and she put her hands on his shoulders.

     This was it, he couldn’t believe it. He was dancing with the girl of his dreams, the most important person to him.

     He lost sense of everything else around him and sensed only Janella then he noticed something mildly terrifying: Janella looked like she was trying to get away.

     He didn’t want to waste this moment so he dismissed this as paranoia and put himself back in the moment.

     The song ended and another slow song played. Austin and Janella looked at each other and, without words, decided to dance for another song. This was the moment where he knew that it was only paranoia.

     He brought her closer to him as she brought him closer to her. He was back in the moment that would cement this as the greatest night of his life.

     He the felt it again, that sense that she was trying to get away. It was like all those times before when he felt her slipping away. But this was different. This was their first dance, the first among many to come. He wanted to put her in the same moment he was in, just the two of them.

     He wanted to say it, the three big words, for the first time face to face. The only time they said it to each other before was digitally. Now was the perfect moment.

     The problem was that he can’t. No matter how hard he tried, he just can’t. He tried to make the most of what he had now when things took a turn for the worse.

     “FINALLY!” Sr. Leo said as he quickly passed by.

     “Sir!” she said angrily.

     Nica was pointing a camera at them two.

     “Guys!”

     “Don’t worry.”

     “Just don’t post it on Facebook or something.”

     Austin simply gave them the look that said, “go away.” And they followed.

     “Well this is disappointing…” she whispered.

     He tried the one thing that would work at a moment like this for him: self deception. He tried to convince himself that Sr. Leo and Nica didn’t interrupt. He tried to convince himself that Janella didn’t want to get away. After a while of this, it worked and he was back in the moment…

     …then the music stopped.

     Mad by Ne-Yo began to play and Austin gave Janella the same look but she refused and went back to her seat. Austin sadly looked on as she left him. He lazily walked back his seat as well.

     He tried using his self deception method to preserve the greatness of this night and he finally got it to work. In his reality, he just danced with the girl of his dreams and she loved it.

 

Most of things that happened after that that were less interesting. There was a giant showdown between freshmen and sophomores near the back with Sean, Job, Aaron, and last but definitely not the least, Laurenz leading the Sophomore team.

     Austin went to TEAGS for a proposal.

     “Hey guys, let’s have our own showdown. Come on, it’ll be fun!” he said.

     “I’m in,” Ernst said.

     “I’ll pass…” Ivan lazily mumbled. Jericho didn’t even reply; his eyes glued to his PSP. Johan didn’t reply as well.

     “Bring it on, you two…” Bianca said.

     Austin was greatly pissed off by what just happened.

     “Screw it! Half of us wanna spend the LAST FS NIGHT OF THEIR LIVES in San Andreas, fine by me.”

     Austin sat back down beside Janella, desperately trying to say the three words again. He felt that it was too late now and the moment was gone.

     Mildly depressed compared to last year, he went to the dance floor and Saw Sr. Jojo, Sr. Geck, and the freshmen’s TLE teacher, Sr. Dennis lifting Ms. Anne up. She dropped back down and they caught her.

     They did this a few more times and it cheered Austin up a little.

     Another band, this time of alumni, called Daily Board began performing. At this point, he was just waiting for something interesting to happen again.

     Finally, it was the end of the night. Austin stood next to Janella as they announced the main awards.

     “The Best Male Dancer is… Laurenz. Liwanag!”

     The sophomores cheered.

     They awarded a few other awards. After the best costume for girls, it was time for the best costume for boys.

     “And the winner for the best costume for the boys is…”

     “ERNST DE VERA! ERNST DE VERA!” TEAGS and Patola were chanting. This definitely made up for his mild depression.

     Unfortunately, Ernst didn’t win. Instead, a freshman wearing a full blown Iron Man costume won. He tried the repulsor beams in his palms only the costume didn’t even reach his hands.

    

Everyone was sent home and Austin signed out.

     “So Austin, did you dance with her?” Sr. Edmond asked.

     He remembered the best part of his night and smiled.

     “Yes, sir, I did.”

     “Nice job… Take care on your way home.”

     “I will, sir!”

     He went to the gate where his mom was waiting for him.

     “Mom? What are you doing here?”

     “I just felt like picking you up like the old times. Anyway, is Janella here?”

     “Yeah, want to meet her?”

     “Sure.”
     “Wait here.”

     Austin went to Janella.

     “Hey there. Waiting for someone?”

     “Yeah, my brother.”

     “Oh… hey, my mom’s here. Wanna meet her?”

     “No thanks. I’m kinda shy.”

     “It’s okay. Come on.”

     “Austin, wait!”

     “Mom, I’d like you to meet Janella.”

     “Hi there.”

     “Hi…” she said shyly.

     They smiled at each other as Janella saw her brother.

     “Hey, I have to go.”

     “Oh, see you…”

     “It was nice to meet you,” his mom said.

     She just smiled at her as she went towards her brother. He just stood there, watching her leave. He saw her brother look at him and he was struck with fear. This was averted when he tapped her on the shoulder and pointed at Austin. She looked back at him and he waved. She waved back.

     “So, like old times, huh?”

     “Yup, let’s go.”

     Austin went with his mom across the parking lot as he looked at Janella, fading into the distance…