Mischievous Function

Finally Getting Started

A little while later, in another room...

"All right, girls!" Microphone called out, sliding the bathroom door shut behind her and walking into the main part of the bedroom.

Her call got the attention of the nine other student-idols-in-training and Dot. Lightbulb and Test Tube were lying on their bed with Suitcase sitting right next to them. On the other bed, Golf Ball, Pin, and Needle had all been lying next to each other near the head of the bed while Ice Cube and Bubble were sitting near the edge of it. Fanny was leaning on the wall in the corner behind the I. High girls, while Dot was leaning back in the desk chair. They all quickly turned to face her with attentive looks.

"After evaluating you lot during yesterday's training," she told them, "I've come to the conclusion that Ruby has trained you B.F.D. High girls...exceptionally well. A pleasant surprise. While some of you are more...physically adept...than others, you're all nevertheless at an above average physical readiness state for girls your age."

"Blame it on Four's P.E.," all of the B.F.D. High girls scoffed at the same time.

Mic arched a brow before shrugging and turning to her own girls. "And as for you three, you're fine as well. Lightbulb, you take dance classes on your own, right?"

"Yup!" Lightbulb replied with a cheery voice. "Paintbrush knows just how flexible I can be!"

"Good. Suitcase, you are...somehow in perfect physical condition, even though you don't work out at all and your diet has so much oil in it that the Yoyle army wants to invade your plate every time you sit down to eat."

Suitcase shrugged sheepishly and smiled. "I guess I'm just lucky."

"And as for Test Tube, you're almost as flexible and fit as Lightbulb. Do you dance, too?"

"M-me?" Test Tube pressed a palm to her chest before laughing nervously and shaking her head vigorously. "N-no, of course not. I...I wish I could dance, heh. I-I just spend my leisure time in my lab doing experiments and—and building stuff, y-you all know that."

Lightbulb arched a confused eyebrow and asked, "What do you mean, you don't dance? What about all that slice-of-life musical anime in one of your lab's safes that you showed me? You told me in your free time you—"

"Lightbulb..." Test Tube said through gritted teeth in a sing-songy, pleading, desperate, don't-you-dare-say-another-word-or-you're-going-to-be-my-next-test-subject voice, "...shut the burner up, please!"

Microphone chuckled before shaking her head and clearing her throat. "Anyway...considering that we only have three days left before the contest on Friday, I think it's time we start rehearsing our new song. As it turns out, Dot happens to be either a performance enthusiast or a natural, so she'll be teaching us this new song of hers."

Dot nodded and pulled out a stack of papers, walking around the bedroom and passing one out to each of the students. "All right, here's the lyrics," she said. "They're Yoylized so you can read them phonetically. I know they don't mean anything to you yet, but we'll go over what the song means so you can get more immersed, as well as some of the finer points of Joylese pronunciation. Are any of you colorblind?"

When none of the girls responded in the positive, she continued, "Good, because I've color-coded each of the lyrics so that you all only have to worry about a part. There are some parts that we all have to sing together, but the song itself is fairly short and repetitive. I've split up the only unique parts so that each of us only has a bite-sized piece to be responsible for. Suitcase, you're brown; Test Tube, green; Lightbulb, yellow; Fanny, dark blue; Golf Ball, gray; Pin, red; Needle, white with the gray highlight background; Microphone, white with black outlines; Bubble, light blue; me, white with the dark blue highlight background; and Ice Cube, white with the light blue highlight background. We're singing in that order, too. Gosh, I just realized how many of us share hair and eye colors..." She muttered that last part as she looked around at the group, sitting back down in the desk chair.

"I know, right?" Microphone muttered back. "Like, literally half of us have silver hair."

She shook it off and clapped to get everyone's attention. "Okay, everyone! Listen to Dot! She's going to help us know this song like the back of our hand. If we're going to be ready by Friday, we'd better be able to sing our parts in our sleep. BY TONIGHT. Tomorrow, we need to get started on choreography, and we need to string it all together and rehearse on Thursday. Aqua volunteered to handle the background music, audio-visual effects, and all the other nitty-gritty—bless her poor innocent twelve-year-old heart—so we have to do our part, too, okay?"

"Okay," they all replied.

"Good. Take it away, Dot."

Dot nodded and stood back up to address the girls. "Okay, everyone. So, first of all, this song..."