*Hey, y'all! Merry Christmas Eve! I hope you all are having fun this holiday despite everything that's going on. This chapter is published on December 24, 2021. If you guys love this chapter so much, don't be afraid to vote and comment! That would be much appreciated! Love you all and Merry Christmas Eve!*

As the theater group was escorted by a limo driver towards a hotel designated by Jimmy Crystal himself, the theater group was alone and nowhere near Suki Lane since Suki was the one who called the limo for them.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Mizuki uttered in pure fear now.

Eddie shrugged his shoulders. "I have no idea."

"Mike, what the heck?!" Ash barked at Mike, who looked at Ash in shock.

Mike narrowed his brows. "Why are you yelling at me, Spikes?!"

"Uh, yeah, like we know his address and everything," Ash repeated Mike's words and imitated Mike's voice mockingly.

Mike blinked for a second at the imitation. "Why are you making me sound dumb?"

"Because you are dumb!" Ash growled.

"I was just joking, Spikes!" Mike argued. "It's not my fault that the mega clash of Gordon and Simon's baby can't take a joke."

Ash tilted her head with narrowed brows. "What if he thinks you're lying, Mike?"

Mike guffawed. "Then I'll tell him that it's a joke and he takes things too literally."

Buster rolled his eyes. "Guys, come on. Let's not argue."

"No, you don't understand. Clay has been a recluse since his wife died of a stage accident. Since that accident, no one has seen him for fifteen years," Ash explained further.

"How would you know that?" Mike questioned Ash.

"Because he was my idol when I was a kid. My older brother introduced his songs to me. It inspired me to be a rockstar just like him someday," Ash answered in a cracked voice. She went silent while her gaze softened and she frowned. "Just hearing about what happened to his wife was so heartbreaking though."

Buster frowned as he looked up at Ms. Crawly. "Do you think you could find out where Clay Calloway lives?"

Ms. Crawly nodded her head. "I think I can."

"Good."

The silence filled up the limo as the limo approached the hotel. The group gasped at the huge hotel called The Crystal Tower. At the very front of it was water dancing in the light while sprouting in the air.

The theater group gasped in fascination as they entered the hotel with kind staff willing to guide them to their rooms. As the staff guided them through the hotel, the group gaped at the beautiful tree with pink blossoms falling and dancing through the air right in the center of the hotel entrance. Their eyes were wide in fascination to find more sofas and couches for families and groups to commute and talk amongst each other about the latest gossips in the huge city.

They were guided to a hotel room right by the water slide so that they could just jump out of the window and splash into the water slide randomly if they wanted to...or if they needed to.

Gunter jumped on the soft sofa while rolling on top of it. "Ooh, this is a good life. Who wouldn't want to have this kind of life?"

"Probably people who were already living in it," Mike stated flatly while looking around the fancy room.

Johnny smiled brightly. "This is nice. Who knew we could get a hotel for free?"

Buster opened his laptop and began to type out the screenplay. "Okay, Gunter, that space musical you came up with is genius!"

Gunter chuckled while sitting next to Buster. "Yeah, Mom always said, Gunter, don't act so stupid like your father or else you'll end up like him."

"That's kind of sad. Why would she say that?" Eddie questioned Gunter's story.

Gunter smiled a bit. "Oh, that's because Dad died doing reckless tricks on the motorcycle. Let me tell you, he became porkchop as soon as he went through the saw blades. That's what she meant by acting stupid."

"Oh, dude, I'm sorry," Eddie uttered.

"Bah, don't worry about it, he died before I was even born," Gunter said like it's no big deal.

Ash felt the soft cushion while Johnny smiled at her. "This is nice."

"I know. Look, there's a gift basket!" Johnny pointed at the gift basket.

Mizuki grinned and went over to the gift basket to see that it was from Jimmy. She took out a note that said.

"You better not let me down, Moon, or else."

Talk about pressure, Mizuki thought when she read that note.

"What did it say, love?" Buster chirped while peeking behind her to see the note. Buster's eyes went wide. "What an interesting note."

"Don't worry about the note, babe," Mizuki stated while just throwing the note away in the trash.

Buster shrugged his shoulders as he went back to his laptop to type out the screenplay. "Hey, Gunter, since you're the one who came up with the idea, could you help me with the screenplay?"

"Uh, ya, of course! Okay, okay, hear me out!!! What if we have a battle scene?" Gunter came up with the idea.

Johnny perked his head up, interested as he got up from his seat. "That would be so cool! Just imagine, two tribes fighting one another for the dominance of a planet!"

"Ya, Ya!!" Gunter exclaimed excitedly and nodded his head. "Or we can have a ballad!"

Buster was typing every idea down while stressing a little bit.

Johnny tilted his head. "In a battle scene?"

"Ya!!" Gunter stood on top of the couch. "Oh, wait, wait! How about we have the dance battle scene?!"

"Now, that would be epic!" Johnny said with a laugh.

"Hey, if we're doing a space musical," Mike piped up. "We can have some Star Trek or Star Wars reference in there."

"Like what?" Both Gunter and Johnny questioned the mouse.

"I don't know. May the Force be with you or something like that," Mike said with a shrug.

"Nah, that's overused," Gunter denied while shaking his head until an idea came into his head. "Oh, oh, I know! How about we have a ballad of a couple surviving the planet that is nearing extinction?!"

"Isn't that too dramatic?" Ash joined in the conversation.

"Bah, that's what this musical needs. A little drama," Gunter determined.

Buster typed faster than before without stopping them and recorded everything they said.

"Can we add in a little romance?" Nancy added with a smirk.

"Ya! Ya! Let's add a little romance between a goddess and a mortal man on the planet!" Gunter expressed his idea.

"Isn't that done a lot?" Meena uttered with a brow raised.

"Between a god and a mortal woman, yes. But I don't think we've seen those roles reverse...unless we're talking like Aquahorse or something," Mike replied with a shrug.

"Um...what should the story actually be? Because they're all good ideas but we need a story to weave them all," Rosita indicated.

The group went silent as they pondered about it for a second.

"I think I might ring up a couple of ideas," Buster talked as the group looked at him. "I wrote down the ideas you guys were saying and I'm thinking to myself...what if we write about an explorer on the mission to find the lost astronaut, who disappeared mysteriously from his last mission in space."

Everyone gasped with bright smiles.

"Ya, there you go, Buster!" Gunter exclaimed excitedly with a squeal. "Oh, this musical is going to be our baby."

"That's just weird," Mike stated flatly.

"No, it's not," Gunter argued back. "It's our baby."

Buster typed on the computer. "This might take a couple of days to get to work on."

"I think this will turn out amazing," Mizuki said positively. "But how will we get Clay Calloway involved?"

"I'm still figuring out his location!" Ms. Crawly announced while having a map displayed right behind Buster.

Ash sighed deeply. "My older brother has his address but now I couldn't even remember for the life of me."

"Well, why don't we look for your brother?" Mike questioned Ash.

"He died," Ash said sadly.

"How?" Meena uttered while tilting her head.

"Well...let's say he had enough of life that he just took a leap and never came back," Ash stated in a more sad tone.

The group became saddened for a moment. Some wanted to say they were sorry for Ash's loss.

But the mood instantly vanished by the ringing of the doorbell. The doors flung open as the piglets bolted into the room to get to Rosita.

"You're here, my darlings!" Rosita said in surprise as the piglets jumped onto their mother.

"Look, there's Johnny!!! Get him!!!"

The piglets separated from the main group hugging their mother while they tackled Johnny onto the couch while the gorilla groaned playfully.

"Oh no, they got me!" Johnny cried out teasingly.

The group of piglets split off to hug Meena as she cradled them like they're her children with a giggle.

One of the piglets was about to reach for Ash's quills but Ash pulled away.

"Do you want to get stabbed?" Ash asked the piglet.

The piglet shook his head.

"Then be careful to not touch these," Ash pointed at her quills. "You'll get hurt."

"Oh, Caspar, watch Ash's quills!" Rosita shouted while Norman, her husband, pulled her close to him.

"Sorry to bring the kids all the way here. They couldn't wait to see you," Norman stated.

"It's alright, Norman. It's a pleasant surprise," Rosita stated with a soft smile. "I'm getting the feeling that you couldn't wait to see me either."

"You know it," Norman said with a smirk while they both kissed on the lips.

Mike rolled his eyes. "Hey, do you mind? You're kissing in front of the kids."

The kids around Mike nodded their heads in agreement while going 'Ew' simultaneously.

Eddie realized that kids were climbing on him as he could barely move. He's not much for kids but Rosita's kids he'll make an exception for. "Uh...I can't walk, guys. I don't want to hurt the kids."

Johnny trudged over to Eddie with the kids hanging onto his clothes. "Don't worry about it. Hey, kids, want to see a cool new trick?"

"Yeah!" the kids holding onto him exclaimed.

"Alright, better hang on. Ready? One. Two. Three!" Johnny flipped with the kids holding onto him while landing on his hands and lifting his legs up higher for the kids holding onto him. This earned laughs and giggles from the kids as one of them climbed up to Johnny's shoe.

"Look, I'm on top of the world!" One of the kids shouted.

Ash just smiled at him fondly. "Show-off."

Johnny smirked at Ash while giving her a little flirty look to get her blushing. And it worked surprisingly.

Buster watched everyone talking and playing with the piglets with a fond smile while one of the piglets named Gail came up beside Buster while watching him type up the screenplay.

"What are you writing?" Gail asked in curiosity while leaning into Buster's arm.

Buster smiled softly. "I'm writing a screenplay for our new musical."

"Ooh, what is it about?!" Gail questioned excitedly while sitting on Buster's lap.

Buster tried to see the screen while having his arms around her to type more words out. "It's about an explorer looking for their fellow explorer who's lost in space. And each planet they explored has different stories to tell."

Gail noticed the screenplay while getting off the couch. Buster didn't know why she's leaving but he shrugged and kept typing throughout the day.

When it reached night, all the kids were worn out from playing with Johnny too much. The kids weren't the only ones worn out. The theater group had their fair share of letting out their energy as they slept in the living room. Buster yawned as he kept typing on the computer with Mizuki sleeping on the couch next to him. Buster's glossy eyes shifted at Mizuki as he formed a soft tired smile and was tempted to just snuggle into her arms but he knew that he had to finish the screenplay. He heard tiny footsteps as he glanced over to see Gail coming back with a drawing.

"I hope this inspires you more," Gail said sweetly as she gave him her drawing.

"Thank you, Gail," Buster whispered while the young piglet yawned and rested on his side, cuddling. "Goodnight."

Buster smiled softly as he took a look at the drawing. It's not an artist's masterpiece but he could clearly see a spaceship in a weird golden oval shape with the little koala in a spacesuit. Buster could assume that she's drawing him in a spacesuit and floating in space near the spaceship where little colored circles represented planets. The koala could gush at this picture all night. As his gaze moved through the page, his eyes were broadened at the words written in a messy font that was actually easily readable at the bottom of the page.

"To: Uncle Buster.

From: Gail".

Buster froze at the word 'Uncle' while gazing down at Gail, who was sound asleep on his side. The koala couldn't help but melt instantly at the sight of the drawing. He hugged the drawing tightly as he folded up neatly and placed it inside the suitcase.

Buster shut off his computer for the night while cuddling up next to Mizuki with Gail sleeping on him. A couple more piglets joined in while snuggling between the antelope and the koala, earning a smile from the koala. In his own mind and heart, there's nowhere else he would rather be than here with Mizuki and the rest of the theater group.

Throughout the next couple of days, Gunter and Johnny helped Buster with the ideas while the three of them tried to figure out the ending of this musical because there's endless opportunities. However, on the last day of working on the screenplay, Buster finally finished writing it as everyone looked at it with a satisfied nod. 

~.~

All the stage crew that Jimmy Crystal sent to work for Buster Moon gathered at the Crystal theater with more seats than the Moon Theater and a bigger rounder stage than the original stage. Since it's a bigger stage, there were a lot more controls that Eddie could play around with if given time.

Buster gathered everyone around with a covering of what's going to be revealed. "Alright, alright, everyone gathered around here. So, the space musical that we're going to be performing is called—" Buster removed the cover to reveal a golden spaceship with sparkles and the title Out Of This World. "Out of this world!"

The stage crew and the theater group applauded their hands while Gunter could squeal into his hands to see how it's growing.

"Our story will focus on the space explorer looking for their fellow explorer, who's lost in space some time ago," Buster uncovered the book to reveal two little cardboard pigs standing on the spaceship, with one of them being a robot. "With the help of her trustee robot, they searched through various planets. The first planet they'll be arriving in will be the planet called Pyro where two tribes will battle for dominance." Buster showed the book of an orange ground with the two tribes fighting with the gorilla being one of the leaders, surrounded by fire. "Then, she'll take a trip through the planet called Disperare where a couple was trying to survive on the planet that is slowly dying." Buster opened the next page to show the mice couple surviving through the empty desert of a planet.

The stage crew gasped in fascination while they all looked anxiously for the next page.

Buster smiled as he revealed another book where the cardboard elephant in a pretty white dress and began to tell the next planet. "The next planet will be called Amor, where a goddess falls in love with a mortal man. By the end of this story—" Buster revealed the ending but to realize that there's no end. The koala gasped while confusing the theater group and the stage crew. Buster giggled nervously. "Well, a happy ending is that she's going to find the lost explorer and they go back home."

The stage crew went silent as the theater group looked around to see if they got any of it.

"Lame!" Someone shouted from the audience.

Mike glared at whoever said that. "You're lame!"

"You're lamer!" The same person shouted.

"You're the lamest ever!" Mike yelled.

Nancy nudged on Mike to stop yelling at some random person in the audience.

Buster moved on. "We got three weeks to make this into a reality!"

"Wait, wait, who's going to be the cast?" The walrus crew asked quickly before they moved on.

"Well, the star of our show is going to be...Rosita! With Gunter as her trustee robot," Buster gestured grandly towards the mother pig, who had her eyes broadened in shock while tears were filling in her eyes.

"Really?" Rosita said teary-eyed. Buster nodded his head in confirmation. "I can't wait to tell Norman and the kids about this."

"Johnny, you'll be the tribal leader," Buster assigned Johnny a role, for which Johnny got excited for.

"Yes!" Johnny shouted with glee.

"Mike and Nancy—"

"Let me guess, we're the couple that's stranded on an empty desert of a planet that is dying," Mike guessed automatically.

"Yes, there you go!" Buster cheered for Mike's guess as he moved on to Meena. "Meena, you'll be the goddess."

Meena blushed while hiding in her ears nervously.

"And Ash, you'll be the star that will guide the lost explorer out of the dark tunnel. And the lost explorer will be none other than Clay Calloway."

The audience of the stage crew gasped in fascination.

"Alright, let's get to work!" Buster determined.

With that, everyone nodded their heads and began setting up the stage for the space musical. 

~.~

The next day came in Redshore City as Buster was given a list of people and teachers Jimmy chose himself for each of his theater friends to go to. One morning, Johnny and Buster walked into the dance class within the Crystal Theater as Johnny felt a little more nervous than normal.

"I know that this was a dance battle scene...but I'm not sure I would fit into the role as leader," Johnny uttered while looking around him to see the animals stretching with their bodies flexible enough for their legs to reach over their necks or do splits on the chairs.

Buster turned to Johnny. "Johnny, you're going to learn the steps in no time while working on the number one choreographer in the world." Buster showed Johnny the card with the serious monkey in a French pose named Klaus Kickenklober.

"Kickenklober? What kind of a name is that?" Johnny muttered to himself.

"This is a suggestion made by Jimmy Crystal since he knows more about this city than I do," Buster said with a shrug.

"Mr. Moon?"

Buster directed his attention to Meena, who's peeking into the dance classroom nervously. He looked up at Johnny. "I'll be right back. Introduce yourself to your classmates since you're going to be working with them."

Before Johnny could protest, Buster left him standing there idly. The gorilla turned to see his classmates eying on him with brows raised in curiosity to see who he was. Johnny gulped while his heart was racing.

Johnny cleared his throat and plastered a smile. "Hello, lads."

The classmates waved at him while greeting him back. In the corner of the room, the snow leopard smirked to see the new student joining them.

"Alright, we have ourselves fresh new meat!"

Johnny jumped at the sound of a loud voice and saw a familiar monkey from what he could assume to be named Klaus. "You must be Mr. Kickenklober."

The classmates blurted out laughing from the way Johnny said the teacher's last name. Instead of Kickenklober, Johnny said it as "Kickingklober."

When Klaus glared at his students, the students instantly silenced themselves while suppressing their chortles. Then, the instructor shifted his glare at Johnny, who winced at the intense glare. Johnny didn't like the look of the monkey...not one bit.

Meanwhile, Meena and Buster were walking side by side with each other through the theater.

"Mr. Moon...uh, I got a question about this goddess thing," Meena uttered nervously.

"What's going on, Meena?" Buster asked while tilting his head.

"Well...um, I read over the script last night and it said that...that I have to kiss somebody...on stage," Meena stated while shivering at the thought of kissing someone. "I have never kissed anyone before or have any kind of a relationship."

"Hey, there's a first time for everything," Buster reassured the elephant. "You afraid of boys or something?"

Meena froze at the question while blushing a bit. She's not particularly afraid of boys since she met nice guys like Johnny, which surprised her that he's nice to her despite being part of a gang. However, meeting Johnny was the start of meeting actual nice guys such as Buster, Gunter, Eddie, and probably Mike if he even tried to put himself out there. So, Meena wouldn't say that she's afraid of guys but she had bad experiences with them since most of the bullies she had throughout childhood were guys.

Meena rubbed her arm while shaking her head. "Not exactly. I just never been in love before."

"Well, you'll know it when you feel it," Buster stated. "I promise we'll pair you up with someone who has good chemistry with you."

"Promise?"

"Cross my heart and hope to die," Buster said as he crossed his heart.

Meena smiled softly. "Thanks, Mr. Moon."

"No problem, kid," Buster replied.

Buster perked his ears to see the students dancing in the class. When he peeked inside of the class, he saw that Johnny was learning all the steps but it's not in the way the monkey would've wanted it.

"Wrong steps, Johnny!" Klaus growled at the gorilla and smacked him in the arms.

"Ow, Bloody Mary, are you going to hit me any harder?" Johnny growled lowly.

"And one, and two, and three—"

Johnny stumbled in his steps and tripped on the floor, earning pity glances from his classmates.

"And the dumb one falls."

Buster immediately went into the classroom to check on Johnny. "Hey, Johnny, you doing okay?"

"He's not doing the proper steps!" Klaus angrily replied.

"I'm trying!" Johnny argued with a growl as he got back up on his feet.

Buster watched intensely as Johnny followed his classmates' moves until he stumbled and collapsed on his knees. The koala knew that Johnny wasn't the dancer type since he's usually not a good dancer when they have parties but nobody complained about his clumsy moves. Buster wished that the teacher would go a little easier on Johnny since the gorilla was new. But he knew that Johnny wasn't dumb. If anything, if Johnny could learn how to play the keys and sing his heart out from his deceased mother, then he'll most certainly catch on to the dance moves and routines quicker than expected.

Buster had to check on other things as he went into the theater to check if everything was set and ready to go for production.

Johnny took a fall for the fifth time during the class from the teacher smacking him in the arms with a wooden ruler. It hurt like the devil but Johnny knew that he couldn't stay on the floor. He had to get back up and try it again. However, what Johnny didn't expect was a hand extended in front of his face.

Johnny widened his eyes in shock while his gaze followed upwards to realize there's a snow leopard standing right in front of him and holding out a hand, his grin soft and his deep ocean blue eyes gleamed.

"Take my hand before he knocks you down again," the snow leopard whispered, almost teasingly.

Johnny almost let out a quiet chuckle while taking his hand and the snow leopard pulled him up.

"Alright, take a five-minute break everybody!" Klaus announced while glaring at Johnny. "You will never reach greatness, Johnny."

With that said, Klaus left the room, leaving the gorilla to sigh sadly.

The snow leopard crossed his arms while glaring back at the teacher and then shifted his soft gaze at the gorilla. "You okay?"

Johnny turned to look at him and nodded his head. "Yeah, I'm fine. I'm new to this so...I might not know a lot of steps."

"Don't sweat it," the snow leopard stated with a smile. "You look familiar."

"I do?" Johnny questioned. "I don't think I've met any snow leopards in my lifetime."

"You look like Billy Dexter for some reason," the snow leopard uttered with a brow raised.

Johnny gasped. "You listen to Billy Dexter?"

"Yeah, before he went under the surface. I think it said something about him having a family or something," the snow leopard assumed.

"Oh, I haven't heard of that."

"Well, it's been a long time ago." the snow leopard shrugged. "The name's Chadwick, by the way."

"Johnny," Johnny introduced himself as he shook the snow leopard's hand.

"It's nice to meet you," Chadwick, the snow leopard, stated. "Where are you from?"

"Catalonia. What about you?"

"Born and raised in Redshore City," Chadwick answered proudly. "If you want after class, I could give you a tour around the city."

"That would actually be lovely," Johnny stated. "If I can make it out of this class alive."

Chadwick chuckled. "You will. To inform you, Klaus doesn't like it when you pronounced his last name as 'Kickingklober'."

"I didn't mean it to be insulting."

"I know, but he takes things personally. He feels attacked when you mispronounced his name. So, if I were you, I call him Klaus. Forget the formalities with this guy, alright?" Chadwick warned.

Johnny nodded his head obediently. "Alright."

On cue, Klaus came back into the class. "Alright, break's over! Let's go at it again!"

~.~

The night arrived as Mike couldn't stand it. This place called Redshore City brought back many haunting memories. He tried to shun them away but they keep coming back stronger than ever before. His ears perked up at the sounds of sirens while looking over his shoulder every minute.

His hazel eyes grew paler the more he walked around the city. He thought some fresh air would help him breathe as he took just a walk around the night with the streetlights and city lights lighting his way constantly and around him.

"Don't be afraid."

The voice of his mother entered his mind but it didn't sound like it even came from his mind. He turned his head to find where the voice came from. His heart skipped a beat when he stumbled onto something on the floor. The mouse glanced down to notice blood flowing in the cracks of the cement like a river. Mike's eyes went wide as he turned his head towards the direction where the blood was flowing from. His feet was glued to one place. He refused to go over there into the dark alleyway. He saw two figures fighting while he squinted his eyes to see a figure wearing a cloak with a hood over his head fighting off a jaguar.

Mike's eyes went wide in horror when he saw a head getting decapitated by the cloaked figure's sword. The hooded figure wiped the blade clean by using his dark clothes. Mike began to breathe heavily as soon as the figure turned to look at him. The darkness of the alleyway with only one flickering light didn't show his face. Mike didn't even know if this cloaked figure was even an animal or not. Mike wanted to run as fast as he could away from the cloaked figure but the figure didn't even make a step towards the mouse. Instead, the figure raised his finger to shush the mouse.

Before Mike could even do anything, he felt someone bumping into him from behind. The mouse yelped and whirled around to find Nancy wincing at his yelp.

"Sorry, Mike, I didn't see you there," Nancy apologized quickly.

Mike didn't even respond as he shifted his gaze back down at the alleyway, seeing only a light flickering but the figure vanished without a trace. The dead body he decapitated the head from was nowhere in sight nor was the head. The mouse glanced down to find that there was no blood within the cracks, causing him to breathe heavier. He lifted his foot to find that there was no bloodstain underneath his shoe.

"Mike!"

Mike finally shifted his attention to Nancy.

"I've been calling you three times. Are you okay?" Nancy questioned her boyfriend.

Mike blinked for a second while turning back to the alleyway where he saw a murder take place. "I thought I saw a murder down there."

Nancy peeked down at the alleyway in curiosity. She noticed the stressed look on Mike's face as she held his hand. "Why don't we go back to the hotel? Maybe you can tell me what happened."

"I-I don't know if I can," Mike muttered to himself mostly as Nancy took him by the hand gently and the mice couple were on their way to the hotel.

Unbeknownst to them, the hooded figure that Mike saw earlier was watching them from the rooftop, his stoned face never withering from an emotion.

When they reached back to the hotel room where the theater group was at, the mice noticed that most of them were sleeping from the exhaustion of today. Mike wouldn't blame them. If he weren't as paranoid throughout the day as anybody else, he would've been collapsing onto the sofas with them. Nancy yawned while her eyes were getting droopy.

Mike rubbed her back. "Why don't you get some sleep? I'll tell you more about what I saw later."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah...I just need to wrap my mind around it. I think I might be hallucinating."

Nancy sighed deeply. "Well, maybe we could take a look at it in the morning to be sure. Okay?"

"Okay, goodnight."

"Goodnight, Mike. Sweet dreams," Nancy uttered with a small smile as she went towards the group to get ready for bed.

Mike frowned while gazing up at the map with the picture of Clay Calloway's face.

They're still trying to find out where he lives, Mike thought as he yawned too. Who knew yawning could be contagious? Mike made his way up the counter and watched the group sleeping on the sofas with Nancy joining them. The male mouse yawned more as he crawled inside of a gift basket and just slept there for the night. 

To Be Continued...