ALLURA'S NEW GROOVE - PART 3

Tasia the problem-solver, that’s me. I’m going to just walk right into Allura’s room, talk her out of all this foolishness, and everything will be just dandy by lunchtime. End of story. It makes me laugh out loud to think about it.

Good old Nanny. The poor woman doesn’t have a clue. Not a one. Neither does Coran, for that matter. They both seem to think this is just a mood swing that’s going to blow over, and then Allura will be back to her sweet little innocent self again.

Talk about major denial issues here. They’ve probably been doing it since she was a kid. That’s why she cut her hair. She knew exactly what sort of reaction she’d get from them by doing it. She’s trying to give them a message and they refuse to see it. Poor girl.

Poor Coran and Nanny, actually. They think I’m going to help them shove her back into that cage she’s been trapped in all her life. They couldn’t be more wrong.

I stroll up to the Princess’s door to knock at it. I catch a bit of music playing before it’s cut short, then there’s a pause and footsteps pad up to the door.

“Who is it?” Allura asks through the comm pad.

“It’s Tasia, Princess. Can we talk?”

The door slides open and a subdued-looking Allura eyes me warily. She’s wearing her nightgown and a robe. “Who sent you here - Coran, Nanny or Keith?”

I fold my hands in front of me. “It was a group effort, I guess. They’re all worried about you. So wassup, Princess? You sure did make a stir with the haircut thing.”

She sighs and rolls her eyes. “I know. You’d think I tried to jump off of the castle roof.”

“But you did in a way, didn’t you?”

She studies me for a long time before she speaks again. “Figured me out already?”

“Girlfriend, I know rebellion when I see it, and I don’t blame you one bit. You can quote me on that.”

She gives a heartfelt sigh of relief. “You have no idea how happy I am to hear you say that. Sometimes I think no one understands how I feel.” She steps aside to let me enter. “Come in.”

She heads back across the floor and I follow her inside. Her bed is covered in DVD cases with movies of all sorts. A large-screen TV is set up across from her bed, and the image is frozen on a blonde girl in a pink dress sitting alone on the bank of a concrete causeway. It looks familiar, but I can’t quite place it.

“In a movie-watching mood, I take it?”

“Just this one, for right now.” She picks up a remote and hits the play button. The movie starts up again and a girl begins to sing in a mournful tone:

“Look at me, there has to be

Something more than what they see,

Wholesome and pure,

Oh, so scared and unsure,

A poor man’s Sandra Dee.”

“Grease...this is Grease,” I say aloud.

“Yes,” Allura replies solemnly. “It’s the story of my life, you know.” She plunks down on the bed, draws up her knees and rewinds the scene to watch it all over again. I sit on the edge of the bed and arch an eyebrow at her.

“The story of your life?”

Allura waves her remote toward the screen. “Of course it is. Don’t you see it? Look at that girl. Just look at her. Nice and sweet and soft and pleasant and totally unacceptable to the rest of her more sophisticated friends. Even she realizes she has to change to fit in.”

“Princess, come on. You’re no Sandra Dee.”

“Oh, yes I am,” she replies with a sneer in her voice, then she abruptly jumps to her feet to stand in the middle of the mattress and sing.

“Look at me, I’m Ally Dee, cute and clueless as can be, can’t go to bed till Coran lets me wed, I can’t - I’m Ally Dee.” She puts her hands on her hips and looks at me. “Now tell me that didn’t fit,” she demands. “Go ahead, I dare you.”

I have to fight down the urge to bust out laughing. “Allura, there’s nothing wrong with being innocent, you know?”

“Yes, I know. People like me like that, there‘s nothing wrong with me being that way, yak yak yak, blah blah blah. I’ve heard it all before, and I am so tired of it.” She flops onto her stomach on the mattress, bouncing a half-dozen DVD cases onto the floor.

“What did Dexter do to you under the table?”

“Caught that, did you?”

“Yes. What did he do? Tell me.”

I shrug at her. “He pinched my butt because I wasn’t paying attention to him. He does it all the time, the booger. What’s that got to do with anything?”

“What do you think would happen if Keith pinched my butt?”

“Cap’n Keithie won’t pinch the Royal Booty. It’s not polite.”

She pouts a little. “That’s just my point. I’ll never have Keith express affection toward me like Dexter does with you. He’s always so busy trying to be…” she makes a face like she’s got a bad taste in her mouth. “Polite. Polite and proper. I want him to be different, just once.”

“Have you ever asked him to be different just once?”

She wrinkles her nose. “Well, no, because -”

“It’s not polite,” we say together.

Allura sighs. “Tasia, I’m tired of being ‘polite’. I want to be something else. I want to be...” She points her remote at the screen and brings up a different scene. Sandy is making her entrance at the amusement park in her skin-tight black outfit and leather jacket amid the stares of her classmates. “Like that. Just like that. I want everyone to stand up and take notice of a whole new me.”

I watch the song and dance unfold between Sandy and Danny and I can’t help wondering if that’s all Allura wants. I turn to look at her. She’s quietly singing along with Sandy as she declares to Danny that ‘my heart is set on you’. I get a mental image of Keith in a sleeveless red T-shirt with his hair greased up and it cracks me up. Allura, however, is dead serious. The distance in her expression gives me reason to believe that she’s already lost in a fantasy along those same lines. Hopefully she isn’t imagining Keith with that hair, though.

“Isn’t that wonderful?” she says when the song finishes. “She gets a whole new look, gets the guy and lives happily ever after.” She stops the movie and sighs, her expression wistful. “If only it were that simple.”

“Well, I don’t know about getting the guy and having a happily ever after, but you can do something about getting a new look if that’s what you think you need.”

“And how do I manage that? All of my attendants will act just like the Royal Hairdresser. They’ll be too shocked to help me with anything if I try to make a change.”

“How about you come hang out with your home girls and do some shopping with us today?”

“Oh, that would be so nice, but…” She brings up the scene where Sandy is at the sleepover with the Pink Ladies. “Are you sure it won’t end up like this?”

“Cut that out. You are not Sandra Dee. Now do you want to go along, or not?”

“Okay.” A bit of excitement creeps into her voice. “I’d like that, but how will we get past the security?”

“I’ll talk to the girls. We’ll figure something out. Don’t sweat it. All right?”

She nods. “All right.”

“See you, princess.”

“Call me Allura.”

“Okay, Allura. I’m outtie.” I get up from the bed and head for the door. Sandy begins singing to Danny again from behind me. I smile to myself as I leave the bedroom.

Keith is standing right where I expected him to be, at the very end of the hall leading from Allura’s bedroom, just beyond the right turn. He’s dressed in a casual shirt of deep red and jeans. I take a moment to look him over. Briefly I picture him in another set of clothing entirely - a T-shirt, jeans, the slicked hair and a leather ‘T-Birds’ jacket. It makes me grin a little. I think Allura has scarred me for life.

“Something wrong?” He asks.

I wipe the smile off of my face and shake my head firmly. “Nope.”

“So how’s Allura doing?” He stuffs his hands in his jean pockets and leans against the wall in a very Lance-like fashion.

“I think she’ll be fine. She’s just a little wound up, is all.”

He ponders my reply for a moment. “Define ‘wound up’.”

“It’s a woman thing, Cap’n Keithie. I don’t know if you’d get it.”

He gets all quiet again. He’s probably trying to recall any woman things he might have some vague knowledge of to see whether or not he actually would ‘get it’. He takes a quick glimpse down the hall at Allura’s door, glances at his shoes, then he looks up at me with this sad sort of puppy-dog look, like he’s pouring his entire heart and soul out through his eyes. I bet even Lotor would have a hard time meeting that stare dead-on.

“Is there anything I can do to help?” he asks quietly.

Sure, Keith, I know exactly what you could do. Dress up like Danny Zuko and go sing to Allura. I have no idea where you’d get enough grease to pull off the hair bit, though. Maybe if you asked Hunk real nice...

“Tasia, what are you smiling at?”

“Nothing, honest.”

He frowns a little. “Why don’t I believe that?”

“Okay, lionboy, I’ll tell you wassup. You just better prepare yourself for what’s comin’ your way, ‘cause there’s a native around here that’s getting restless big time and she’s about to do some serious throwin’ down.”

He blinks at me and casts another look down the hall again. “And that’s what this so-called ‘woman thing’ is all about?”

“You bet your firm little tomato, baby. Consider this your first and last warning.” I walk around him and start down the hall. He lets me leave without demanding a further explanation, which is surprising. But it looks like today is going to be a day full of surprises. And if I’m going to get the plans for my own little surprise in motion, I have to get my troops assembled. First I need to find Desiree, my Team Three liongal. Hers is the normal base of operations for the launch of our escapades, so I have to let her in on what’s going to happen.. Then I recruit The Three Amigas - Lynne, Caroline and Shannon - to aid me with the details for the escape plan.

I think I’ll call it ‘Operation Sandy’. Yeah...

After a quick search around the castle, I find Desiree hanging out at the library, of all places.

“Hey, girly-girl, wassup?” I ask her.

“Excuse me,” comes a familiar voice from behind me before Desiree can reply. I step out of the way. Lynne plops a pile of books on the table beside me and pushes her glasses back up on her nose with a finger before brushing discreetly at the front of her ruffled silk blouse.

“Dust,” she says as if apologizing for being untidy. I smirk at her as she swats lightly at the front of her skirt and checks her pinned-up hair. A few wisps of it refuse to cooperate, making her look like a prim but slightly mussed librarian. I tilt my head at her.

“What is up with the glasses? I’ve never seen you wear those before.”

“They’re just my reading glasses. I’m still updating the Archives, so I’ll be doing a lot of reading tonight. Do they make me look bad?”

“They make you look like I should ask you what section I would go to for books on origami.”

“Oh.”

“Ask her where you find a book on how to defend yourself from tipsy Lion pilots on the prowl,” Desiree says with a smile.

Lynne makes a face. “Let’s not and say we did, shall we?”

Right then Hunk and Dunkirk walk into the room, each of them carrying a thick repair manual. Hunk pauses in his tracks three steps into the room. Dunkirk stops too and leans around Hunk’s shoulder to give Lynne an appraising look. Lynne meets his gaze evenly. Dunkirk fixes his attention briefly on her bosom, then he breaks into a wide smile that puts color in her cheeks.

“Heya, gals,” Hunk says cheerfully, then he smiles at Lynne and holds up the manual in his hand for her to see. “Me and Dunny wanna get a couple copies of these repair manuals if we could. I guess it’s special order, right?”

Lynne nods briskly. Hunk glances around at Dunkirk and holds out a hand. Dunkirk takes his attention away from Lynne long enough to hand his manual to Hunk. Hunk gives both of them to Lynne.

“We gotta fill anything out?”

Lynne shakes her head ‘no’ quickly as she takes the manuals from Hunk. “I can fill out the request forms. Not a problem.”

“Thanks, I appreciate it. We still got a few more of those to drop off. We’ll bring ’em by in a bit, okay? See ya.” He gives Lynne another smile and turns to leave. Dunkirk gives her one last once-over before he follows Hunk through the door. Five seconds of absolute silence follow before Desiree and I break into spasms of laughter. Lynne’s mouth twists into a ferocious scowl.

“That was not funny, you two!” Her cheeks turn a deeper red, and it makes us laugh all the harder. Desiree has tears in her eyes.

“Your face is so red!” she gasps. “That is hilarious!”

Lynne gives us a stiff little smile. “I’ll get you for this. Both of you. Mark my words.”

“Well, you’ll have to get me later. Right now there’s something more important to worry about. Rumor has it that Princess Allura is going to vanish from the castle this afternoon.”

Lynne and Desiree both look at me with expressions caught between surprise and concern.

“Vanish? Are you sure?” Desiree frowns. “We need to tell Keith, then, so he can beef up on the security.”

“No,” I tell them. “Keith is the last person on Arus that needs to know about it.”

“And how do you figure that?” Lynne asks.

“Because I’m the one that’s planning to make Allura vanish. She wants to come with us when we go shopping.”

Desiree purses her lips. “Let me get this straight. You want to take Princess Allura to the mall?”

“Yes.”

“The Princess Allura? Of Arus?”

“There’s only one.”

Desiree makes a face. “Sistah, you are out of your mind.”

“Oh, come on. She needs to get out. She’s frustrated and bored, and I think she needs some fresh air.”

“And what about keeping her safe?” Desiree replies. “She wouldn’t have any escorts to protect her.”

“We’ll be her escorts. There’s going to be you and Lynne, plus Leila and Camille and Shannon and Caroline, and I plan to be her shadow. She’ll be fine.”

Lynne shakes her head a little. “Tasia, I agree that the princess could use a little time out of the castle, but you and I both know how close an eye Keith keeps on her. And he isn’t our only problem. Lance, Hunk, Dexter or any of the others present a similar obstacle. We’d have to get her past all of them without her being spotted.” She walks around the table to retrieve a pair of white gloves, puts them on and begins to unwrap the linen from an old book lying on a countertop. “But I won’t be going anywhere myself if I don’t get this started,” she says. “I’d like to be able to turn in an outline of the amended archive list, at the very least.”

“Lynne, you said this project could take months to set up. I doubt they expect you to have a full list drawn up already.”

“I just don’t want the Royal Librarian thinking that I’m a slacker now that I’m an official associate of the library. I have to get some work done before I take the rest of the afternoon off to engage in princess-nabbing.”

“Speaking of work, we have to figure out how we’re going to sneak Allura out of the castle in the first place,” Desiree says. “Lynne is right - we need a pretty good plan to get her past both the guys and the castle security.”

“Shannon knows the security network like the back of her hand. It’s not a problem.” I tap Desiree on the arm. “Come on, Desi, let’s leave the professor to her research and go find the other Two Amigas. See you in a few, Lynne.”

She nods at us as we head to the auxiliary monitor station to recruit Shannon.

To Allura's New Groove: Part 2

To Allura's New Groove: Part 4