Featured Songs:

1. Excerpt of "Let's Do This" by Hannah Montana

2. "Here I Am" (Tori version) from Barbie Princess & the Pop Star

"One, two, three-" Boba counted. "Don't look at my feet."

"This is- really hard!" Omega said, trying not to step on her twin's feet or get her own feet stepped on.

The anniversary ball was days away, and Omega didn't know how to dance. And that wouldn't be the only party she'd have to dance at. Her and Boba's birthday ball, Obi-Wan and Satine's wedding, and the ball her family was secretly planning to throw in her honor when the adoption was finalized to serve as her debut. According to the royal family and all the princess movies Omega got to see with the younger kids over the last week, dancing was an essential part of being a princess.

Right now, Boba was teaching his twin and the Batchers what he could. Trying, anyway. Carmine was out running errands with Caroline, Padme was attending a relief conference with Anakin and Gabby, and Lamenta with Kara and Qui-Gon overseeing that they learned all the damage that was caused by Lady Morpha's invasion of many kingdoms and Republic allies, as well as the arrest of the remaining Separatist allies.

A few others were having a bit of trouble too.

"Ouch!"

Crosshair jumped in pain and held his foot after Wrecker stepped on it.

"Sorry! It's not my fault your foot got in the way."

Crosshair stomped on Wrecker's foot.

"Ow!" Now Wrecker was the one holding his foot.

"Oops, now your foot was in the way."

"Hold still, Tech!" Hunter said, trying to pull a bucket off Tech's foot after he'd accidentally stepped in it.

"The number of buckets around here makes no sense at all." Tech said, trying to get his foot unstuck.

Boba shook his head and helped Tech take off his boot.

"Oh." Hunter and Tech suddenly felt pretty silly not having thought of that first.

"This is ridiculous." Echo said. "Can't we just wait for your uncle to get back from those errands?"

"No. When Aunt Caroline takes you out for errands, it takes forever." Boba said. "Why do you think Lamenta always hides when she says they're going to do that?"

"Then how do you expect us to master dancing?" Hunter said. "No offense, but I'm not sure you're the best qualified dance teacher."

Boba thought and said, "No, I'm probably not... but I know someone who is a great dance teacher."

"Again! Uno, dos, tres!" Alicia clapped.

When Boba came into the Encanto and told Alicia they had an emergency regarding the upcoming ball, she couldn't say no when he asked her to be their substitute dance teacher. Conveniently, her brother Marco, another great dancer though his true talent was the guitar, was visiting her that day, and he was protective of his hermanita. And, he could be a little harsh in his criticism, but he meant well, and he was actually okay once you got to know him. So, they had two dance teachers instead of one.

"Come on, Crosshair. You gotta loosen up!" Marco said. "Feel the fire!"

"I only fire shots at targets." Crosshair said stubbornly.

Alicia oversaw Hunter dancing with Omega.

"Muy bien. Very good, Hunter and Omega." Alicia smiled.

"You really do work fast." Hunter said.

"You're getting much better, Tech." Mila said, having the smartest Batcher as her partner.

Tech twirled his girl and said, "Chances are we carry a superior chemistry as partners in dance."

"In other words, all you needed was the right partner." Mila smiled.

And Tech held her in a dip. "Is that evidence enough?"

"Watch how you're holding my niece." Marco warned.

"Tio Marco." Mila groaned. "First Papa, now you?"

"I'm only looking out for him while he's not here."

"Be grateful I convinced your father to stay behind." said Alicia. "He would've been a lot worse."

Tech sighed. "Your father still doesn't like me?"

"Papa likes you okay. He just worries a lot." Mila said. "The real challenge will be meeting the rest of my family... You know, when we're not in a life-or-death situation."

"Just wait till you see where she lives." Boba told Omega. "It's amazing."

"Your father and sister had a good time when they came to visit." Alicia said. "Especially with Julieta's cooking."

Mila looked at her boyfriend. She knew he was used to more advanced technology and such, but she assured him that the Encanto was filled with just as many opportunities to use his smarts as this world, if not maybe more since her world operated in a different time frame.

"The Encanto doesn't have all this advanced stuff, but I look at it this way: when you have less, you have more opportunities to explore, learn, and create." Mila said. "Have everything handed to you, you'll never learn anything."

"Were your parents busy all the time?" Tech asked.

"No, they were very attentive. But having skipped a few grades, I had a lot of free time to delve into a lot of psychology books, classic tales, and autobiographies of people from across our world."

"How can you know so much if you've never even seen other parts of your world?" Hunter asked.

"Like I said... books. My room is literally a magic library that gives me first take on any book from around the world."

"How'd you figure that out?" Boba asked.

"Well, at first I didn't notice due to the excessively high shelves of books and the large number of books." Mila said. "Even with a high IQ, I was still five years old. But around when I was seven, I noticed books I hadn't previously seen in any of the shelves, and one day I noticed new shelves appearing and looked into some of the books to find they'd been printed recently... in other countries. Luckily, I already had books that taught me other languages."

"How many languages do you speak?" Omega asked.

"Hmm, let's see. There's English, which you call Basic here. And of course, I speak Spanish. Then I learned to speak German, French, Chinese, Latin, Hindi, Portuguese, Arabic, Japanese, Javanese, Polish, Italian, Bengali, Indonesian, and Korean. Then when I came here, I learned that Kel Dor language, and Twilek language too. So, how many languages is that?"

"Eighteen." Omega said.

"Wow. I guess one of your talents must be remembering, and math too." Boba said.

"You should've seen the math problems she drew up when she was only six." Alicia said. "She really made the teacher's head spin."

"Sounds kind of like Gabby when she aced her first horseback riding lessons." Boba said. "At least, from what Mom said. She was fifteen months old when she got on a horse for the first time."

"Seriously?" said Mila. "How is that even possible?"

"Says the girl who could name all the phobias in alphabetically order at age four." said Marco.

"Okay, estudiantes." Alicia said. "Let's move on."

So, the group kept practicing and slowly making progress.

Hunter's heightened senses provided a bit of an advantage when he danced with a partner. It seemed to help him know where his partner would be and when, thus giving him time to know where he needed to move and feel the rhythm of the music. Tech noted the patterns each set of steps followed, and used that to help him calculate and angle his movements, and that became especially easy when Mila helped him.

The real challenges were Crosshair and Wrecker.

Wrecker... let's just say he didn't always know his own strength.

He lifted Alicia, but might've put a little too much strength into getting her up. Luckily, that was one of the moments where Mila's telepathy came in handy.

Wrecker might not have been the sharpest of intellect in the Bad Batch, but he was smart enough to know that unless they were in an extremely elaborate performance of Dancing in the Stars, his partner should not have been catapulted ten feet into the air.

"Sorry, Ms. Alice." Wrecker said.

"It's Alicia. And it's okay, Wrecker. It was an accident." Alicia said. "Mistakes are part of the learning process."

"And it looks like you learned rule number one about dancing with a partner." said a familiar voice entering. "Know your own strength as well as your partner's."

Carmine entered the scene.

"Were you having another teacher do class around here?" Carmine asked.

"Hi, Uncle Carmine." Boba said. "We just needed some extra help."

"Don't sweat it. I get it. You needed help, I was busy."

"Is he the so-called dance teacher you talked about?" Marco said.

"Carmine Jinn."

Marco shook his hand. "Marco Martinez."

"And yes, I do teach dancing." Carmine said. "I do it for a living, and sing. In this world, I'm known for working with famous singing sensation Count Crescendo."

"How good is this singer?"

"Only the greatest in the galaxy." Boba said, taking out his phone and pulling up a music video.

In the video, Count Crescendo appeared in a pink and gold outfit, his face covered by dirty blonde hair, him and his dancers on beat and strutting their stuff.

I rode all night on a big old bus
You came a long way to be with us
You paid good money
To see a show
Ya, lets get ready
Cause here we go
Get on your feet, 'cause I'm plugged in
So come on, let's do this

Lights shined and the music got loud as Count Crescendo did some of his best movements, tossing his hair back and forth, moving his hips to the beat, and cool moves with kicks or punches with so much confidence.

I turn it on
I crank it up
I'll show you all what I'm made of
I'll get it loud
I'll wear it out
I'll bring the roof in this house down
I know just what you came here for
And I want to hear you scream and more
Get on your feet
You know you can't resist (Yeah)
Let's do this

Na na na na na na
(Uh huh uh huh)

Na na na na na na
(Let's do this)

Na na na na na na
(Uh huh uh huh)

Na na na na na na

"I've seen better back home." said Marco.

"Seriously?" Wrecker said. "You ain't seen nothing. Do the one with the colorful explosions!"

"You mean fireworks?" Boba said, pulling it up.

"This Count Crescendo doesn't seem like a good influence." Marco commented.

"What do you mean he's not a good influence?" said Carmine.

"No real man dresses up like that. Pink is for girls."

"So is dancing, but look at you teaching it." Boba said.

"Touche. But I can't say I blame the man for hiding his face."

"Why?" Carmine said, sounding a bit upset.

"I'm just saying, if I were forced to be parading around in humiliating outfits and dancing like that, I wouldn't want my face to be known either."

"I choreographed those pieces myself." Carmine said, offended.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I had no idea. But he doesn't seem to have the best taste in clothes."

"My daughter helped design those!" Carmine said angrily.

"That explains a lot."

"You don't have to be so rude." Omega said. "Just because you don't like pop music doesn't mean you should insult the singer."

"Still, famous people like that, I've heard are not well in the head." Marco said.

"Gossip shows make that stuff up." Carmine said. "I know Count Crescendo, and he lives solely on inspiring viewers of all ages to be themselves no matter what others say."

"He's a little over the top." Marco said. "And frankly, dances like a girl."

That was the last straw for Carmine.

"You take that back!"

"Uncle Carmine, calm down!" Boba said. "Lots of singers get haters. This can't be the first time Count Crescendo's had one."

"It's not." Carmine said, getting his nephew to stand aside. "Holo-net comments are nothing, but I think it's a different story if those hateful comments are said right to one's face!"

Carmine got right into Marco's face in anger.

"Why are you getting so offended? I'm just giving my opinion." Marco said.

"Well, you should know the difference between brutal honesty and nasty comments." Carmine growled.

"It's not like I told Count Crescendo straight up that he's not fit to perform at a Quinceanera."

"Well, you just did."

"What?!" said the Batchers.

"Count Crescendo's here?! Where?" Wrecker said. "Anyone got something he can sign?"

Boba tried to stop Carmine, but he said, "I'm getting swarmed by paparazzi now anyway."

"What do you mean?" Hunter said.

Carmine stepped up and said, "I'm Count Crescendo."

But at first, they didn't believe him.

"I've heard you singing before." Tech said. "Very off-key."

"That was a fake-out." Carmine said. "Don't you see? I mean, didn't you ever notice I'm the only other person who can do Count Crescendo's dance moves exactly? Or how you've never seen me and Count Crescendo in the same room at the same time?"

"What about at Gabby's birthday ball?" Estrella pointed out.

"We had a changeling fill in for me on the red carpet, and then we used an illusion spell to make it look like I was in the audience when I was actually performing."

"Can you really prove you're Count Crescendo?" Wrecker said.

"Okay, I will." Carmine said, taking Marco's guitar from the corner. "Any requests?"

"Here I Am." Boba said.

So, Carmine stepped into the right space and strummed the guitar as he began to sing, starting out slow.

When I was young

I played for fun

Made up the words

Nobody heard

But now I see

All eyes on me

And suddenly

I'm in a dream

Carmine felt so nervous. This was the first time he was performing in front of anyone showing his real talent and his real identity. But, he built up his confidence and increased his tempo and dynamic a little.

I got a feeling now

Everything's right somehow

Here I am

Being who I want

Giving what I got

Never a doubt now

Here I go

Burning like a spark

Light up the dark again

Suddenly, lights began to shine as Carmine sang

I'm stepping up

Right to the top

That's how I'm wired

I take it higher

I'm in control

I broke the mold

The guy you see

Is up to me

I'm lifting off the ground

Finding the perfect sound

And Carmine dropped down before rising up now dressed in a blue and purple outfit, long purple hair covering his face as he continued to sing and dance to the beat of the music.

Here I am

Being who I want

Giving what I got

Never a doubt now

Here I go

Burning like a spark

Light up the dark again

Again

Again

Again

Again and again and again

"He is Count Crescendo!" Wrecker jumped excitedly.

Before they knew it, other people in the palace heard Count Crescendo singing and rushed to hear him perform.

There's a star that's right inside you

So come on and let it out

Find out what you're about and just shout

"Here I Am"

Being who I want

Giving what I got

Never a doubt now

And Carmine magically made his outfit change colors every second.

Here I go

Burning like a spark

Light up the dark again

Here I am

Being who I want

Giving what I got

Never a doubt now

Here I go

Burning like a spark

Light up the dark again

Here I am

Being who I want

Giving what I got

Never a doubt now

Here I go

Burning like a spark

Light up the dark again

Again

Again

Again

Again and again and again

Again

Again

Again

Again and again and again and again

Here we go

Carmine tossed his hair back for a big finish.

"You don't have to like my music, but learn to watch what you say." Crescendo said, this time not disguising his voice. "The next time you say something behind someone's back, remember they might not go so easy on you."

Everyone in the palace who was a Count Crescendo fan was overjoyed to see him. A lot of them were asking for autographs or requesting another song or a picture. And Carmine, not being one to disappoint, told the kids to get in line.

"None of you can tell anyone about this, okay?" Boba said. "If he decides to let anyone else know, he'll be the one to do it. That goes for you too, Marco. Don't forget, my grandpa is king. But, I'd be more worried about Aunt Caroline if I were you."

"Are you performing at the ball?" asked one worker. "Is that why you're here?"

"As a matter of fact... yes." Carmine, or rather Crescendo said. "And my choreographer just happened to let me know that a very special girl has joined the family. I believe we were in the middle of a lesson, Princess Omega?"

He offered a hand to Omega. Even though Omega knew that was her new uncle under there, she wouldn't pass up a chance to be taught by a famous performer.

Once they finally got to be alone, Carmine joined in on giving Omega pointers on dancing, starting with the waltz she had to learn for the ball. And then they even moved on to just dancing for fun, and Carmine taught her some of Count Crescendo's moves.

Omega looked curiously at all the instruments Carmine had.

"You wanna try them?" Carmine offered.

"Can I?"

"There's music in all of us. Let's find yours."