*Hey, guys, I'm here with the first chapter with my version of Sing!!! YASSS!!! This is published on June 22, 2021. If you guys like this chapter, don't be afraid to vote and spam the comment section. I would appreciate seeing you guys comment. The song used is called "The Greatest Show" by Panic! At The Disco. I hope you guys like it! Enjoy!*

"Here is where it all began," A voice echoed through the empty theater. "Here is where an ordinary little guy fell in love with the theater. Everything about it. From the sounds to the lighting, and even the smell. He was six years old but his dreams to be the first marsupial in space were...toast."

A koala, wearing a blue suit and blue slacks, emerged out onto the center stage as if he's performing a play to the audience. "Some folks may have said that he grew up to become the greatest showman the world has seen. Some people called him a visionary, some people called him insane. But I believe that wonder and magic don't come easy. And, oh, there will never be a doubt where the name Buster Moon will go down in entertainment. And I should know because I'm Buster Moon."

The koala, Buster Moon, gestured grandly towards the audience in the theater. However, the seats in rows were all empty from the stage towards the entrance of the theater. The balconies were even bare with no living thing listening to the koala's monologue.

Buster sighed heavily while clearing his throat. "Well, great exercise there, Moon."

"You're talking to yourself again, Mr. Moon?" An innocent woman's voice peered from backstage.

Buster jumped a bit while turning towards a female antelope with her fur mixing brown and white fur. She wore her red bead necklace, a yellow flowery dress, and holding a small blue notepad in her hoof.

"Oh, you're here early, Mizuki," Buster uttered in surprise while straightening up his dark blue tie and smoothing out his hair.

"Yeah, I thought I stop by and see how my favorite boss is doing," Mizuki, the antelope, replied with a bright smile.

Buster blushed a bit while chuckling. "Oh, just talking to my imaginary audience."

Mizuki glanced ahead with Buster to see the vastness of the theater when it's empty. "It sure is empty."

"Yeah, that's why we're getting those seats filled pretty soon," Buster responded with determination. He strode backstage with Mizuki following him. "Okay, talk to me!"

Mizuki gasped a bit in surprise as she paced to catch up with her boss, which was something she got used to after a while. "Okay, so for today, you have an appointment with the bank at three."

Buster sighed deeply. "Oh boy. My shows are nothing but flops. No one is interested in the theater anymore. It's a waste of money for both my end and the bank's."

"Don't worry, Mr. Moon, I'm sure we can figure out a way to keep this theater alive!" Mizuki responded happily.

Buster chuckled again. "Yeah. What else?"

"Um, you have the stage crew from the last show wanting their paycheck."

Buster clenched his teeth while entering his office with Mizuki following him in. The koala quickly got out the paychecks he had for the stage crew with a groan in disappointment. "Yeah, that's going to have to wait. Anything else?"

Before Mizuki could talk further, the old iguana entered the room with her glass eye always out of place.

"Good morning, Mr. Moon," the iguana greeted the koala while handing him a cup of coffee.

"Oh, good morning, Ms. Crawly! What a fine day it was!" Buster replied happily, masking his other emotions from panic and anxiety.

"Yes, it is, Mr. Moon," Ms. Crawly, the iguana, said while handing him the coffee cup. "Here's your morning coffee."

"Really?" Buster questioned as he noticed the cup empty. "W-Where is it?"

"Oh, dear, I must have drink it on the way up the stairs," Ms. Crawly answered while exiting out of the office and earning a giggle from Buster.

Mizuki smiled giddily as she picked up her lunch pal that appeared to metal and heavy. She pressed the button open it and the hot steaming coffee emerged. "Never fear, Mr. Moon, I got you fresh coffee."

"Wow, Mizuki, you built that?"

"Yep, homemade and everything." Mizuki smiled proudly.

"Impressive." Buster stared at the new coffee machine that appeared like a lunch pal in fascination and took a sip of his coffee. "What else is there for today?"

"Oh, right. You have lunch with Eddie Noodleman at noon at Les Calamars--"

Buster almost choked on his coffee. "Wh-What? I didn't schedule that--"

"I know, I did." Mizuki grinned from ear to ear.

Buster blinked for a moment. "Whoa, whoa, wait, why did you plan the lunch?"

"Eddie wants to help you with the theater since it's not doing so well," Mizuki pointed out.

"Look, if he's going to offer me money--"

"Oh, come on, he wants to help you."

"I can't burden him by helping me."

"You're not going to burden him, you're his friend. That's what friends do--"

"Please don't tell me that you already paid for the reservations."

"No, Eddie did."

Buster groaned deeply while rubbing his forehead. "Okay, I'll go down there only to clarify that I'm going to be fine without money."

"Mr. Moon--"

"What?"

There's a pause.

Mizuki took out the blue box. "You literally don't have money."

"Pfft! Of course, I have money, I got--" Buster opened the blue box only to see that there are a few cents. "--sixty-nine cents."

There's another brief awkward pause.

Mizuki clenched her teeth together in urging her boss to get more money. "Yeah, I don't think that's going to save your theater, Mr. Moon."

Buster sighed deeply. He took a moment to ponder about this. "Alright. Alright, you win. I'm taking off!" He quickly took out the lunchboxes he packed for today. "Just in case."

Mizuki rolled her eyes playfully at her boss.

"I'll be right back! Buster Moon is off to lunch!!!"

Mizuki waved Buster goodbye as he exited out of his office to go to lunch. The young antelope began to cross out the list on the small notepad. "That's already done. Now, off to work."

Mizuki made her way out of the office, helping Ms. Crawly stack the papers and look over the bills that needed to be paid.

~.~

Buster exited out of his theater, the sun blinding him automatically. When he blinked, he could see the city of animals wearing clothes all around him. From smallest to biggest passed by him without giving little care to the world around them. With a sigh and eyes rolled upwards, Buster pulled out his headphones and plugged in the music he wanted to listen to.

The music began as he could smell the fresh air.

https://youtu.be/jpJ8CbrWX_Y

"Woah!"

The voices echoed through his eardrums. However, a random koala wearing a white top hat and suit turned and followed Buster as the beat dropped and he began to sing in a low tone.

"Ladies and gents

This is the moment you've been waiting for."

Buster didn't pay attention to the koala singing and the other pedestrians turning their attention away from their phones and glanced at Buster like it's some sort of a musical playing in the background.

"Woah!!"

The beat dropped again as the koala sang in a low hopeful tone.

"You've been searching in the dark.

Your sweat soaking through the floor. (Woah!).

And buried in your bones

There's an ache that you can't ignore.

Taking your breath

Stealing your mind.

And all that was real is left behind."

The beat dropped a couple of times during the verse as the animals began to dance to the music, being led by the koala in a white suit and top hat.

"Don't fight it, it's coming for you, running at ya

It's only this moment

Don't care what comes after

Your fever dream

Can't you see it getting closer?

Just surrender 'cause you feel the feeling taking over."

The music began to build up as the koala leading the group was being lifted as they followed Buster through the streets without the koala acknowledging them.

"It's fire, it's freedom

It's flooding open

It's the preacher in the pulpit and your blind devotion

There's something breaking at the brick of every wall

It's holding all that you know

So tell me, do you wanna go?"

The animals began to break into a dance routine where they spun around and skipping along with Buster's stride through the streets full of busy people while the koala came right beside Buster. The koala had his arm around him while gesturing towards the bright path ahead of him.

"Where it's covered in all the colored lights

Where the runaways are running the night

Impossible comes true

It's taking over you

(Oh, this is the greatest show)!"

The koala hopped around behind Buster and skipped ahead of him while Buster listened into his headphones with a hum.

"We light it up, we won't come down

And the sun can't stop us now

Watching it come true

It's taking over you

(Oh, this is the greatest show)!"

The beat dropped as the koala began to climb up the steps of a porch of an apartment building that Buster happened to be passing by as he continued to sing.

"Colossal we come

These renegades in the ring

(Woah)

Where the lost get found

And we crown 'em the circus kings!"

The koala tumbled over the rail and landed on his feet, leading an army of animals behind Buster to dance around the koala without the koala even looking at them as the music grew more intense and exciting.

"Don't fight it, it's coming for you, running at ya

It's only this moment

Don't care what comes after

It's blinding, outshining anything that you know

Just surrender 'cause you're calling and you wanna go!"

Buster crossed an intersection as the cop that was controlling the traffic automatically stopped the cars while following the pedestrian animals along with dancing to the music and singing with the group.

The koala in the white top hat began to dash towards the other side of the intersection while belting out his greatest harmonies.

"Where it's covered in all the colored lights

Where the runaways are running the night

Impossible comes true

Intoxicating you

(Oh, this is the greatest show)!"

The animals continued to dance as Mr. Moon was able to cross the intersection safely and walked past animals that randomly danced alongside the koala, who began to shoot out fireworks up at the skies as the animals were dancing nonstop without Buster even looking back or hearing them.

"We light it up

We won't come down

And the sun can't stop us now

Watching it come true

It's taking over you

(Oh, this is the greatest show)!

Where it's covered in all the colored lights

Where the runaways are running the night

Impossible comes true

It's taking over you

(Oh, this is the greatest show)!

We light it up

We won't come down

And the walls can't stop us now

Watching it come true

It's taking over you

(Oh, this is the greatest show)!"

The song automatically ended as soon as Buster arrived at the restaurant called Les Calamars. With a smile on his face, he removed his headphones and turned back to see that the reality of people dancing and singing alongside him has vanished. It's right back to people looking down at their phones with scowls and curses at whatever the situation was.

With another eye-roll, Buster put his headphones away into his bag and entered the restaurant. He searched through the restaurant to find a familiar sheep friend sitting in the middle of the restaurant, waving at him.

Buster smiled a bit as he approached the table and sat across from the sheep. "Hey, Eddie."

"Sup, Buster?" Eddie questioned with a smile at his koala friend.

"I'm doing fine."

"How's the next show?"

"Eh, I ran into a creative block. But I got Mizuki to help."

"Oh, you hired her already, huh?"

"Yeah, besides, she's great as an intern to Ms. Crawly," Buster replied with a far-off smile. His smile faded a bit. "Ms. Crawly's getting too old to keep track of what's going on."

"Well, what do you expect? She's two hundred years old," Eddie responded with a shrug. "How's the theater?"

"Oh, it's been going great! I got ideas working! Mizuki is working her tail off to help produce the screen-writing--"

"You absolutely have no idea what you're going to do next," Eddie guessed with a small playful smirk.

"No, no, I know what I'm doing! And it's going to succeed," Buster determined, masking his face with a plastered smile.

Eddie rolled his eyes. "Buster, come on, all your shows just flop and you had no way of paying back the loans you borrowed from the bank to help with those shows. Dad's got a butt-load of cash and I'm sure he'll be more than happy to--"

"No, no, the loans are something I need to pay for. I can't burden you and your family with it. I can find a way to make my own money."

Eddie sighed deeply and shrugged. "Well, my offer still stands if you ever need it."

On cue, a monkey waiter approached their table. "Would you guys like to ordair ahnytheeng?"

The monkey spoke in a French accent while taking out his notepad elegantly.

Eddie noticed Buster looking through the menu. "Um...do you mind giving us a few more minutes?"

The monkey nodded his head in understanding and walked away from the scene.

Eddie tilted his head while Buster groaned deeply. "You paying for your own food?"

"Yep...which I don't have enough money for," Buster responded, earning a laugh from his friend.

Eddie rolled his eyes playfully. "I'll pay."

"No, no, nope. Don't worry about having food here. I got food right here," Buster immediately took out his lunch box and getting out his sandwiches that were freshly made.

Eddie smiled in disbelief. "You're going to get in trouble."

"Eh, you can eat their food. I'll eat mine," Buster replied while beginning to munch on his peanut butter and jelly with a hum.

Eddie rolled his eyes. "Well, if you get kicked out of this place, don't say I didn't warn you."

"Oh come on, since when did I ever blame you?" Buster replied with a mouthful of the bread. For some reason, he heard someone humming as he perked his ears up. He turned his attention to where the humming was coming from.

That's when he saw a female pig in a white blouse and black slacks that was cleaning the table near them. She didn't seem aware she's being watched as she began to sing.

"I'll follow you way down.

Wherever you may go.

I'll follow you way down to your deepest lows.

I'll always be around wherever life takes you.

You know I'll follow you."

Buster couldn't help but smile at the waitress pig singing while organizing the table.

Eddie glanced at what Buster was looking at while tilting his head in confusion. "Um, what are you looking at?"

Buster snapped out his thought as he shifted his focus back to Eddie. "Eddie...I think that I have an idea for the next show."

"What? A play about a waitress?"

"No, something far better than plays and musicals!!!" Buster replied in excitement. "Oh my gosh, I'm such a genius."

"Uhhh---"

"Don't you get it? That woman right there has a voice. What if we can bring raw talent from real people? What if we give the people something realistic? Something fantastic but realistic?"

"Okay, you lost me."

"Oh come on, it's like Catalonia's Got Talent where we could have the people audition and--"

"Oh, like a singing competition?"

"YES! Exactly! You beautiful brilliant sheep! That's exactly what we're going to do!"

Eddie tilted his head in confusion with a small blush. "Well, how are you going to do that without the money?"

"It's going to strike some gold or something!" Buster rephrased his great ideas as he munched more in his sandwich.

Eddie noticed the waiter monkey catching his friend eating his sandwich with eyes comically wide. "Uh, Buster, you might want to put your food away."

"Are you kidding me?! This is the greatest discovery one has made thus far!!" Buster encouraged with his mouth full, blissfully unaware that the waiter was approaching him from behind.

After the koala swallowed his food, Buster felt a presence behind him as he realized what Eddie was warning him about. He swallowed his food. "There's someone behind me, is there?"

"Yep."

Buster glanced up at the angry waiter. "Uh...hi."

Minutes later, he was thrown out of the restaurant with an 'oof' and a thump against the concrete.

"Ne reviens pas, pauvre paysan!" the monkey shouted in French as he stormed right back into the restaurant, passing by Eddie in the process.

Eddie checked to see on Buster. "Hey, are you alright?"

Buster got back up from the floor rather quickly with a bright smile on his face. "Never better!"

He marched through the town of Catalonia with his eyes bright from ideas playing in his mind.

Eddie debated whether he should follow Buster or not until he felt his phone vibrate. He picked it up.

"Hello?" Eddie answered.

"Hey! You're supposed to be at the gym--!"

"Yeah, Yeah, I'm going to be there! I just had this lunch thing with a friend--"

Eddie groaned heavily while pulling his phone away from his face to hear more yelling from whoever it was on the other end of the line.

"Alright, alright. I'm on my way right now."

With a groan, Eddie hung up the phone while he tried to search for Buster. But he disappeared.

~.~

Buster began to strut down the streets, smiling like a million bucks to make the girls fall. Only except, he looked like a total goofball to all the ladies walking by him, whispering about him like he's the nutjob of the town.

But the koala could care less. He began to dance like there's no one watching...unaware there were people watching him from the dark alleyway. The four huge gorillas in huge leather jackets and mean stares watched the koala dancing.

"Oi, this is the perfect time to mug this guy right here," the biggest gorilla said while pointing at the koala. "He seems blissfully unaware."

"Wait, we're going to mug him?" the youngest gorilla in a leather jacket and a green t-shirt with a lightning bolt in the middle gasped in shock.

"Actually, you're going to mug him, Johnny. This is lesson forty-seven of being part of the gang."

Johnny, the youngest gorilla, groaned deeply. "Oh, bloody mary--"

"Oi, watch yer tongue, boy!" the biggest gorilla scolded. "Get whatever you can out of him. We'll be right back." the three big gorillas left the younger one alone, earning a groan from him.

"Oh, Heavens above, why me?" Johnny growled mostly to himself. He watched the koala minding his own business as he began to follow the koala.

Buster wasn't aware of the tall figure following him closely, like a predator stalking its prey.

Before the koala could turn around to see who's following him, he felt a cold rim on the back of his head. With a gasp in shock, Buster froze and had his hands up to surrender immediately.

"Hello, I'm here to mug you," the shadow looming over Buster said in the most polite tone until he cleared his throat. "I mean, hand over your cash if you don't mind."

"Uh...well, for one, I would mind since I got a gun at the back of my head but for two, if I do have any cash on me, I'll be glad to give it to you," Buster responded with clenched teeth. "But...um, I'm broke."

"Oh, really?" the robber asked in his British accent.

"Yeah, here." Buster took out his empty wallet for the robber to examine through.

There's a brief pause as the gun was kept on the back of his head.

"You know, if you would be so kind...please remove that gun from my head. I don't want to die."

"Oh, don't worry, it's a squirt gun. It ain't gonna kill ya."

"Wait, seriously?"

"Yep." the robber pulled the trigger and the gun squirted out water that caused the back of Buster's head to be a bit damp.

"Are you seriously robbing me with a squirt gun?"

"Uh...yeah. Here's your wallet."

Buster was handed his empty wallet back as he put it back in his pocket. "Um...am I free to go?"

"Uh...empty your pockets first."

Buster did as instructed, pulling out the insides of his pockets to show them being empty. "Got nothing in my pocket except my empty wallet."

"Bloody hell, you can't be mugged."

"Yep."

"Well...can I have your watch?"

Buster's eyes went wide in shock. "Oh, this old thing? Oh...it's not worth it. You probably wouldn't sell it since it's broken. On top of that...it...it belonged my Dad."

There's a tender pause.

"It's the only memory I have left of him," Buster uttered sadly.

The pause went longer than expected. What Buster couldn't see that the gorilla robber, the young Johnny, frowned when he heard about Buster's memory of his father.

"I-I can't give up this watch."

"I'm sorry, sir. I can't go back to my gang empty-handed," the robber answered with his voice hoarse for a moment.

Buster felt conflicted, confused. He was in such a cheery mood but now it was ruined. He removed his watch and handed it to the robber without even looking at his hand. As soon as he gave up his watch, the gun was pulled away from his head. That's when he quickly turned around to see who it was that robbed him until that figure vanished.

Buster didn't know who to look for or report it to the police. He rubbed his wrist from where his watch was before. With a moment of sadness, he took heavy breaths to not let the tears overwhelm him today. He had an idea! It's supposed to be the greatest day in history that he had an idea. And no robber or mugger will ever try to get him down. He continued to march on towards the theater.

~.~

Mizuki finally got done with organizing files with Ms. Crawly with a bright accomplished grin. "All done, Ms. Crawly!"

Ms. Crawly smiled at the young antelope. "Thank you, Mizuki, you are too kind. Maybe you can replace me."

Mizuki blushed with a giggle. "Nah, you're a good secretary too. Mr. Moon wouldn't have kept you around if you weren't good."

"Oh, I'm getting old, dear. Never get old, Mizuki. Stay as young as you can," Ms. Crawly advised with a tease.

Mizuki rolled her eyes playfully at the old iguana. "I'll make note of that."

Ms. Crawly noticed someone coming up behind the young antelope. She was going to say something until hooves covered Mizuki's eyes.

"Guess who?" a familiar deep voice teased Mizuki.

Mizuki pondered for a second while smiling widely. "It's Justin Fieber."

"Ha! Nice try, princess!"

Mizuki's eyes were uncovered as she spun around to see a male antelope with a bigger set of antlers than hers and a cheesy smile that could make any woman fall in love instantly.

"Babeesh, babe!" Mizuki hugged the male antelope and kissed him on the cheek.

"How's my little secretary doing in this depressing piece of crap?" Babeesh, the male antelope, asked.

Mizuki rolled her eyes. "It's not a piece of crap, Babeesh. Besides, I'm doing good in it. It's going to make some money."

Babeesh clenched his teeth. "I don't know, babe. I think you need to leave this place."

Mizuki shook her head. "You are worrying too much. Besides, I'm just starting out. I'll move up the ladder eventually."

"Speaking of moving up the ladder, how's your boss?"

"Oh, stressed. It's part of being the boss. He's out to lunch with a friend."

"He didn't try to invite you, did he?"

Ms. Crawly watched the conversation rolled by as she seemed a bit displeased with Babeesh's questions to Mizuki.

Mizuki shook her head. "No. I was the one who made up the lunch appointment."

"Mizuki, Ms. Crawly, you would not believe the day I have! I have a mix of ups and downs--" Buster entered the lobby right in front of his office to see Babeesh and Mizuki standing together while holding a yellow rose. Buster blinked a bit as he immediately walked towards Ms. Crawly. "Here you go, Ms. Crawly, I thought of you on the way back here."

Ms. Crawly chuckled with a soft smile. "Thank you, Mr. Moon."

Babeesh glared at him as Mizuki smiled at the koala showman.

"So, how's lunch with Eddie?" Mizuki asked in excitement.

"Well, as you guessed it, he offered to help pay the loans, which I told him no," Buster responded while hanging his coat up on the coat rack in his office, trying his absolute best to not even stare at Babeesh's glare.

Mizuki stood in the doorway of the koala's office. "Wait, didn't you wear a watch--."

"Oh, I got mugged."

"Oh no, Mr. Moon!"

"Don't worry, it's a squirt gun, nothing dangerous. And the mugger didn't attack me. He's very polite about it and...he asked for my watch," Buster explained, rubbing his wrist subconsciously.

Babeesh blinked in disbelief. "Did you seriously get mugged by a polite person with a squirt gun?"

"Yeah." Buster blushed in embarrassment while ignoring Babeesh's snarky attitude.

Babeesh chuckled. "You're such a wimp."

"Babeesh!" Mizuki scolded her boyfriend.

Her boyfriend rolled his green eyes. "Have fun in your crappy work environment, babe."

Mizuki watched her boyfriend exit out of the lobby. She shook her head in discouragement as she entered the office with the door shut. "I'm sorry about my boyfriend, Mr. Moon. He can come off as a rude person but he's--"

Mizuki noticed Buster's frown and his hands rubbing his wrists. "Oh no, don't let Babeesh say get to you--"

"No, it's not Babeesh I'm worried about. Just my watch...belonged to my father is all."

Mizuki gasped as she sat on the chair in front of his desk as he sat in his office chair. "I'm sorry."

"It's fine...it's...it's just an old broken watch," Buster uttered while skipping the subject. "Anyway, wanna hear the ups of my day?"

"Yes, I love to hear those!" Mizuki exclaimed happily.

"Well, here they are! I just got an idea for the next show!"

Mizuki quickly got out her notepad to wrote down Buster's ideas. "Okay."

Buster leaned back against his chair. "We can have...wait for it...A TALENT SHOW!!"

"A talent show?"

"At first, I want to have a singing competition but then, I realize that I don't have enough money to give to the winner. So, I'm making it a talent show where raw talent can come from and many people can watch this. We just need the auditions and some contenders and the show will be a hit!"

Mizuki took notes while smiling at the thought of a talent show. "Well, since nobody wants to see a musical anymore...which I have no idea why they wouldn't...I think a talent show will get more people interested."

"See? It's so exciting!" Buster replied happily. "Once it strikes gold, I can finally pay back all the loans I borrowed from the bank!"

"Hopefully," Mizuki said in a hopeful tone.

"Yeah, hopefully," Buster responded in a nervous giggle.

~.~

Meanwhile, on the other side of the town, the alarm bells rang. The glass broke as the truck screeched away from the crime scene. Johnny was at the back of the truck, noticing the money at the pick-up of the truck while one of his uncles was driving the truck as fast as they could.

The police arrived at the crime scene late, which couldn't keep track of the truck that drove off and disappeared. The gang finally arrived at the garage called "Big Daddy's Garage". The gorillas finally parked the truck into the garage, shutting it down so that they wouldn't be exposed to the police.

The bigger gorilla, the leader who's known as Big Daddy, got out of the car with a proud smile. "Great job, everybody! Let's keep this up and we'll eventually have enough money to get the shop back and running, ya!"

Johnny didn't seem to be in such a happy mood while coming out of the truck. He took out an old broken silver he stolen from that poor lonely koala. If anything, he felt nothing but pity for the koala.

"Oi, Johnny! Did you mug the guy?"

Johnny glanced to see Big Daddy approaching the young gorilla. "Oh, uh, yeah, um, I got a watch from him. He didn't have any money--"

"Ooh, pretty nifty there, Johnny! Not bad for your first time," Big Daddy, Johnny's father, responded proudly while looking at the old broken watch.

"Well, it's kind of broken and--"

"Oh well, that can be easily fixed. We got enough money to fix this old thing for a pawn shop. We might get more cash if we're lucky from it," his father stated with a bright smile and counted the money.

Johnny frowned while nodding his head. He immediately walked through his garage seeing a bunch of news clipping of the mysterious bank robber but Johnny knew it was his family who was the bank robbers in the news clipping. The young gorilla frowned, trying to remember memories before his family got desperate and began robbing banks left and right. Where did it all go wrong?

Johnny went into his room at the very back into the garage, his clothes were scattered all over the place. He smiled a bit at the familiar room that his father would usually get mad at him for leaving it a mess. Although, he could see his father being a hypocrite since he had a garage full of cash to save up for a new business.

He closed his door with a sign on the bedroom door that said: "Keep Out!" with a black ink marker adding: "Please".

Johnny sighed heavily while locking his door. He sat at the end of the bedside, his sheets overturned like he had been tossing and turning all night. He took off his leather jacket and green shirt, tossing them on the floor while putting on his white tank-top to sleep with.

The young gorilla searched through the hidden drawer on the counter across from them and found the tapes. He smiled fondly as he took one of them out and inserted it into the VHS that connected to his television that was across from his bed. He turned the television on and sat back at the edge of his bedside.

He watched the tapes of him as a young kid, running around and playing with his father out in the beach on the coast of the city. Johnny relaxed a bit and watched the tape played as his child self was playing in the sand and burying most of his father's body except his head, hands, and feet.

"Oh no, can you get out of it, Dexter?" Johnny could hear a familiar woman's voice behind the camera, teasing his father.

"Ha! Watch me!" His father laughed and started to play dead, fooling little Johnny as he came up to his father and tapped his cheek. His father became wide awake and pushed the sand off of his body, picking up little Johnny, who laughed and giggled at his father's playfulness.

Johnny, who was an adult now watching the tapes, chuckled quietly at his father's playful mood.

A woman's gasp was heard behind the camera. "Oh, he got you, Johnny!"

His father glanced at the woman holding the camera. "Come on, you should be in the shot too!"

"No, No, I don't want my son looking back at the past ugly self--"

"Oh no, no, he won't think that. You're still bloody gorgeous," his father guaranteed as he approached the woman behind the camera. The camera was transferred and that's when Johnny could see the woman gorilla he got to call his mother. His mother doesn't have any hair, with hazel eyes staring into the camera. She had an oxygen tank around her since she couldn't breathe easily.

"Daddy! Daddy! I want to hold the camera!" Little Johnny in the video wanted to hold the camera.

"Oi, boy, you can't drop this," his father behind the camera instructed as the camera was a bit fuzzy for a second until it showed the three of them. Little Johnny was between his father and his mother, smiling.

"We should send this on Johnny's twenty-first birthday," his father replied with a laugh.

"Oh, that's too far into the future," his mother responded with her eyes rolled playfully. "Besides, he might be old enough to see I'm ugly."

"What are you talking about? You're bloody gorgeous."

"Thanks, Dexter."

"You're welcome."

His father kissed his mother on the cheek. Johnny immediately paused the video and stared at his mother's features a little longer.

"I think you're bloody gorgeous, Mom. And so does Dad," Johnny uttered sadly while glancing back at the old watch which he stole from the koala guy. When the koala said that the watch belonged to his father, the gorilla couldn't help but think of what he did was cruel. Although, an idea came to his brain. He knew what to do for the next day.

To Be Continued...