"G'day, Rave..." I heard Jacko say.
I decided to come out from a back room that Sarnie and I were in to see Jacko. I had only seen him once before when he was busy in his hanger, and I wanted to refresh my memory. By the time I got there, I found that Rave had already chosen a dancing partner.
"'Ey, guys!" she said as she raced to the stereo, "how about we start crankin' up da music? It'll play as the rest a' th' guests arrive. Whadaya say?"
I don't think any of us had a choice. Rave immediately turned the music on full blast and put the radio on a cha-cha channel.
"Ev'rybody cha-cha!"
"C'mon, Rave, Jacko's the only one who's come so far!" Coco says.
"So? Th' otha's will be greeted by warm CHA-CHAs!" Rave grinned and plled Jacko over to her. "How about you be my dancin' partner fa' t'day? Y'know what they say, it takes two t' cha-cha!"
"I thought it was 'it takes two to tango'?" Jacko replied, befuddled.
"Ah, whateva', jus' dance with me!"
Soon, Shen Lo Ken arrived. Even masters of martial arts could have a party. I had only heard about him. I had wanted to meet him, though. He sounded strong. Rave was already introducing herself to him before I got to him. It seemed she had already forgotten about Jacko.
"...I'm Rave Dingodino, but only for tonight, you can call me 'Ravie'..."
"Nice to meet you. I'm Shen Lo Ken. You can call me Shen if ya want..."
"Sure, Shen..."
I rolled my eyes and scoffed. Shen Lo Ken noticed and went up to me.
"Are you Darwin Dingo?"
"Yeah... and you're Shen."
Shen Lo Ken nodded. "Nice to meet you, too." He shook my hand. "Crash has told me a lot about you."
"...Yeah? What did he say?"
"...I'd rather not tell you. But you look nicer than he says you are."
Shen Lo Ken then nervously inched away. I angrily went to find Crash.
Rave walked back up to Shen Lo Ken. "'Ey, will you dance with me?"
"...Sure, I guess...But later on no one had better tell Marlene."
"Ma'lene? Who's that?"
"My fiancé."
"Your FIANCÉ? Well, that takes all th' fun outta dancin'..."
Shen Lo Ken sweat dropped. Meanwhile, I found Crash and said:
"Crash! What did you tell Shen about me??"
"Huh?"
"Don't play dumb! I know you've told him bad things about me! What didja tell him?!"
"I dunno what you're... talking about..." Crash nervously laughed and sweat dropped.
"Grr..." I decided to drop it and go away from him.
Soon, Monnika Muski and Sheila Fox arrived. Even more people I didn't know. I had to admit to myself that they were both cute. We also introduced ourselves, but afterwards, they left me alone. Drat, I thought, none are interested. It looked like I'd never get any dancing partners for the day. Gradually, more people arrived, and I introduced myself to them. However, none of the girls that came wanted to dance with me. The party went on all day; there was no end to it. By three o' clock, we had listened to the song "Cha Cha Ch" about 6 times. Rave enjoyed that song, and so did a few others, particularly Rodney and Dustin Dingo. They were the fourth and fifth men she had chosen to dance with this day, and they were enjoying it. Those three were the life of the party.
"To the left... Take it back now, y'all... one hop this time..."
Rave sung alone with the radio and danced to the instructions. So did Dustin and Rodney. Everyone else sat around drinking 7-up and watching them, most laughing when Rodney messed up.
"Cha cha now, y'all... last chance to get funky!"
Rave certainly was enjoying herself. I was guessing that we all were glad that we accepted her party idea. I smiled as I watched her cha-cha. I don't know why I was watching her so much, though. We all let out a laugh when Rodney fell. Even Dustin and Rave stopped and laughed. Rodney dusted himself off as he got up and laughed, too. By the time the sun was starting to set, the party was still going strong. Rave and Vector Yamakazi were dancing to a song Rave called in and requested on the radio: "Dancing Queen". It wasn't one that Vector particularly liked, especially since Rave danced to it very quickly, but he didn't mind it that much. We had danced to a lot of songs by now. Since I had nothing else to do, I kept track of them. We had been partying since eleven o' clock AM, so - that meant about 147 songs, give or take a few. After a while, a pizza boy knocked on our door.
"I'll get it," I said, bored. I answered the door.
"Anyone order six extra large pizzas?" the pizza boy said.
"Six pizzas?" Crash said. He then glared at Rave.
"Well... do ya see any of them 'hors divers' bein' et?"
Crash looked over to the hours d'ouvre plate. They were all still there, getting cold.
"Well... OK then. But this'll take a while to pay for. What kids are there?"
"Hmm... lessee," the pizza boy said. "One pepperoni with extra cheese, one mushroom and sausage, one ham, one extra cheesy cheese, one anchovy, and one supreme with every pizza topping you could think of."
Everyone's mouth was watering - especially mine. It looked like Rave had come through again. It didn't take any time for the pizza to wear down. Rave, Dustin, Rodney, Shen Lo Ken, and I ate like pigs. The girls seemed disgusted at how fast and sloppily we ate, but we didn't pay any attention to them. Now it was getting dark. We didn't bother to turn on any lights, though. I heard Rave say that nighttime parties were the best kind of parties. I wondered how she figured that. By now, Rave had already danced with every man that came. She seemed bored again, and the men wanted to rest from having danced so much. Their excuses for not dancing again when she asked them to were "I'd rather rest now," or "I'm too full to dance again," or "I've had enough dancing; you should rest up like we are."
Rave didn't want to stop dancing just yet, though. "C'mon, guys, one more dance," she would say. "C'mon, I'll make it a worthwhile dance...the parta can't die yet..."
"Rave," Shen Lo Ken said, "the party's not dying; we're all just taking time to rest up a bit. We might dance again with you later, OK?"
Rave pouted.
"Well, if you're that anxious to keep dancing," Shen Lo Ken continued, "then why don't you dance with Darwin? You haven't danced with him all day, have you?"
Rave looked over at me. "Him? Nah...he prolly wouldn't want tah, anyway."
"Sure he would. He hasn't danced with anyone all day, either. He must be lonely."
"Well... he does look a little lonely... OK, I'll get him."
Rave walked over to Darwin; as she did, Shen Lo Ken said, "Good on ya, Rave, dance with him."
Rave came over and tapped my shoulder to catch my wandering attention.
"Huh? What, Rave?"
"Would you... dance with me?"
"Dance?"
"Yeah...Uh, if you don't wanna, then I undastand..."
"No, wait, sure I would. You're the first girl to ask me all day!"
One of those slow songs then came on the radio. Well, not a very slow song, but it was "The Shape of My Heart," a song that seemed to make Rave melt into my arms. We slowly danced, and everyone watched. In the back of the sitting crowd, Dustin was grabbing a tiny lamp and a red coloured glass. Rodney noticed him stirring.
"What're ya doin'?" Rodney said.
"Watch," Dustin replied.
Dustin took the shade off the lamp and pointed the lit bulb towards the glass, creating a red spotlight on Rave and I. We continued to dance slowly, step by step, following each other's movements. It seemed wonderful - no, it seemed even better than that. Rave was just as good a dancer as I was. When the song ended, it seemed that we had danced forever. We hadn't taken our gaze off each other's eyes since we started, and we almost didn't notice the song ending.
"Hey you two, the song's over now!" Coco said, giggling. That's when we stopped.
"I think they LIKED that!" Rodney laughed. Then they all laughed. Rave and I didn't laugh, we only nervously chuckled and sat back down.
Soon, nine o' clock came. We were all rather bushed now. Not a bit of the pizza was left, and the same songs the on the radio were being played over and over again. Rave didn't care if the party continued or not; she was satisfied with having danced with every man and having eaten all the pizza she could - a whole extra large anchovy pizza, sixteen slices, and not even getting the least bit sick. Of course, others could have gotten sick just watching her eat all sixteen slices. I sat out on the front steps, watching the moon. I wanted to howl at it ever so badly, but I decided not to, for I might scare someone. It was unusually cold, and I shivered as the wind blew. Then, someone came outside and joined me: Rave.
"Rave," I said, "you are a very good dancer."
"Yeah, you ar', too."
Rave smiled at me. I returned a smile, then looked into the starlit sky. I didn't notice, but as I looked into the sky, Rave was staring at me. She was looking at me deeply, as if concentrating on me. She thought, He has such… deep, brown eyes... just like... And... his fur... not brown, but golden... close enough. He reminds me so much of... him... something about Darwin... Just then, I noticed her looking at me. I turned towards her slightly.
"Wha...? Is there a topping stuck in my fur?" I searched my fur and jacket briefly.
"Ah, no, I was jus'..." She stopped and looked into the sky. I shrugged and did so as well.
Another gust of cold air blew by. Both Rave and I shuddered at its passing.
"Whoo, it's cold out here, isn't it?" I said.
"Yeah..." Rave said. She sounded distant. I looked over at her. She was red.
"Gee, Rave, you're so cold that you're turning red. Wanna wear my jacket?"
"Oh, no, that's OK..."
"C'mon, you're cold, aren't ya?"
"Well..."
I took off my jacket and covered her with it. She smiled a bit.
"Thank ya, Darwin..."
"No problem."
There was a long pause. I looked into the stars again, and she started at me again. Then, finally, she said:
"Da'win... do ya mind if I lean on ya?"
"Uh... no, I don't. Go ahead."
Rave inched closer to me and leaned against me, leaning her head on my shoulder. She smiled as she did, and I felt good to have made her comfortable.
*
An hour later, at about 10:14, everyone started to leave. They thanked us for inviting them and said their goodbyes. As soon as everyone left, we started to clean up. Crumpled soda cans and glasses were lying on the floor, as well as napkins and pizza boxes. We had to clean it up, and we did - all of us except Rave. She had gone off into the guest room to do who knows what.
"Hey, why isn't Rave out here helping us?" Sarnie inquired.
"She's in her room," I said. "She's probably too tired to clean from all the dancing and eating and stuff. Let her rest."
"And why are you sticking up for her?"
"I'm not... doing that! I'm just saying, maybe that's why she's in there."
"Sure..."
I said nothing more and started to help. It took about thirty more minutes to clean everything up, so by the time it was 10:45, we were done, and we were pooped. We all immediately decided to hop in the bed and stay up no longer. When I entered the guest room, Rave abruptly stopped what she was doing and looked up at me. She was sitting on the floor, looking at a tiny frame she had gotten out of her bag. She quickly put it away.
"What was that?" I questioned.
"N... noth--it wasn't anything. Jus'... stuff." Rave was nervous. She zipped up her bag of things
"I think I saw something there."
"You didn't see anything. OK? It was NOTHING, y'hear? NOTHING."
"...Whatever you say."
Rave got her nightgown out of the bag and then zipped it up. Then she exited to room to change into it.
“I wonder what that was...?" I said to myself.
Hmm... I had the opportunity to find out right then. I could look in her bag and see what she was holding so cherished. However, if she caught me, then I would be in big trouble. I was torn; I couldn't decide. However, after a few moments, I decided that I wouldn't let my curiosity get the best of me. I decided to leave her stuff alone, and I figured that somehow I'd know about it in time. Rave soon came back in the pink nightgown again. She looked at me suspiciously.
"Did you look in m'bags while I was getting dressed fa' bed? You better have not."
"I didn't."
"You'd betta' be tellin' th' truth. Ar' you tellin' the truth?"
"I could swear it on a stack a' Bibles this high." I rose my hand above my head.
Rave scoffed and hopped into bed. "Well then. G'night, Da'win."
"G'night, Rave."
I hopped into bed beside her. I felt willing to stay in the bed with her again this time, hoping that she wouldn't be so hyper in her sleep this night. And luckily, she wasn't; it was a peaceful night. But I could have sworn I could feel her leaning against me as we were asleep that night.
Site map -
Rave Dingodino - part 2
Back to the Kavern
Back to the Main Menu
Add-ons Ahoy!
Links to other sites
