Tiny Dancer

1.11 The Diddly-Bops

The bell rings to dismiss Sikowitz' class and they all immediately start to grab their stuff.

"Wait," Sikowitz calls. "Tori. Andre. Beck and Jesse. Jade. Cat. Robbie. Stay for a moment."

They all gather in front of the small stage at the front of the room, wondering what Sikowitz could possibly be up to now.

Tori sees the green bag in their teacher's hand and raises her eyebrows. "Um, why do you have a woman's purse?" she asks with an amused smile.

"It's just a purse," Jesse tells her while Sikowitz looks confused.

"I don't have a wo-" He stops when he actually looks at his hand and sees the purse in question. "Good Gandhi, where did this come from? And where's my dozen bagels?" He throws it down and start to check his pockets.

"Can I leave?" Jade asks, already completely done with whatever this is about.

Sikowitz gives her a look as he finally stops searching for his bagels. "Wait," he tells her. "How would you teenagers... like to do something... for money?" he asks, providing no other details.

They all exchange looks at the sketchy offer. Jesse feels Beck actually take a step back, bringing him with him.

"Can we have some details first?" Tori finally asks.

"Well, I assume you're all familiar with Kevin Chase?"

Beck steps forward with a point. "The guy who owns like half the hotels in Vegas?"

"I'm telling the story!" Sikowitz says tensely.

Beck holds both hands up in surrender. "Sorry," he says, smiling when he hears Jesse laugh quietly.

"Kevin was my roommate in college," Sikowitz explains as he grabs a crate and moves it to the center of the stage, "and now he's extremely wealthy and his little boy is turning four years old this week." He sits down on the crate. "Ah, the big oh-four."

"What do you want, man?" Rex asks bluntly.

Beck leans toward Jesse. "Is that a significant age?" he whispers.

Jesse shrugs. "I mean, a four-year-old can start preschool, so, I guess?"

Sikowitz sighs. "Kevin hired the Waggafuffles-"

Cat gasps excitedly.

"-to perform a song at his son's birthday party."

"Oh, I love the Waggafuffles!" Cat exclaims. She starts to dance and sing their signature song. "Wagga-wagga-wagga wag your fuffle left and right. Wagga-wagga-wagga wag your fuffle day and night. Wa-"

"Shut. Up," Rex tells her.

Cat stares at the puppet, completely offended, before she turns to Sikowitz. "Rex told me to shut up," she tattles.

"Yes," he says simply. "Thank you, Rex."

Cat gasps in shock and turns to Jesse. "Jesse, Rex told me to shut up. And Sikowitz thanked him!"

Jesse sighs. "Why is it always me?" he mutters to himself. He looks at Cat with a gentle smile. "Cupcake, you know I love you and you did a great job on the Waggafufffles' song."

She giggles happily. "Thank you."

"But," he goes on, "you need to be quiet now so Sikowitz can tell us the rest of the story. Okay?"

"Kay kay."

Beck smiles and grabs Jesse's hand, linking their fingers and pressing a kiss to the back of it.