Dreams Of Fame
1.19 - Hahaha, Moo Moo
“Alright. Case: Zoe vs. Zoe, day 2,” the judge sighed, already exhausted.
The judge looked across the room, and her eyes alighted on Beatrice, the only new person in the room.
“You, Miss. Are you Mrs. Cardwell?”
Beatrice shook her head. “Beatrice Stark, actually.”
Catherine stood up. “Uh, excuse me, your honor, but Giovanna… she… disappeared this morning, right before we left for this court case.”
Patel rose to her feet. “Um, excuse you, but she actually disappeared from my hotel room! I called her up and asked her to come all the way to Willow Creek from Oasis Springs, which she did, but then she just vanished! Frankly, I’m offended.”
The judge shook her head. “One of you is clearly lying.”
“Pardon me, your honor, but I’d like to call my newest witness, Ms. Stark, up to the stand,” Catherine said firmly.
“Yeah, sure, of course,” the judge sighed.
Beatrice rose slowly to her feet, and winked at Liberty, which was their signal.
Liberty pressed a switch she had hidden in the sleeve of her dress, which knocked out all the power in the room. She may have been an astronaut, but to get to where she was now, she had to be a hell of an inventor as well.
“This is an outrage!” Patel screeched.
“What’s going on?” Zoe yelled. “This is supposed to be the best courthouse in all of Willow Creek!”
Liberty and Beatrice hadn’t clued anyone in on what their plan was.
In the dark, Beatrice hurried across the room. Pressing her fingers to her temples, she delivered a powerful jolt of alien energy to the judge, enough that it left her feeling exhausted. She quickly sat down in the chair, which created a loud skidding noise as it slid across the floor. That was the next signal for Liberty. She pressed the button again, and all the lights slowly flickered back on.
“Ugh…” the judge groaned.
“Ms. Judge??” Patel said in a sickly sweet voice. “Are you alright?”
“A Day in the Life of Granny… belongs… to…” the judge collapsed before she could finish her sentence.
“Oh my god!” Patel exclaimed, shooting out of her chair. Both she and Zoe ran over to the judge, and fought over who would get to take her pulse.
“She was going to throw the case to me, you know that,” Zoe snarled.
“Giovanna, and those books, belong to me!” Patel yelled.
Beatrice crept back over to Liberty’s side. “I… I used too much power,” she gasped.
Back in the front of the room, Charlie shoved both Zoes out of the way, who were now literally at each other's throats. “I know CPR, and I’m going to do so much more than fight with someone while someones collapsed, cause I’m a decent person.”
“Plan B?” Liberty asked.
“Plan B,” Beatrice agreed.
Beatrice slipped out of the room.
After Charlie’s efforts, the judge managed to reclaim her chair. Everyone sat down.
“…what happened to Ms. Stark?” she gasped.
“Bathroom,” Liberty smiled.
“What are two up to?” Travis hissed. “I don't know what Beatrice is doing here, or what the hell that is she's wearing, but please don’t let it be anything illegal, okay? My moms wont have any of it!”
“You’ll see,” Liberty promised.
“You’re sure lucky Summer is banned from this courthouse now, she would have exposed the two of you for plotting something a long time ago,” Travis added.
“A moment before you collapsed, you said the something about the books belonging to someone, but never finished the sentence. Could you do that now?” Catherine asked.
“Did I say that?” the judge muttered. “Well, I don’t recall saying that, so the court case shall carry on as planned.”
Patel raised her hand. “I’d like to propose a recess? I feel like, given just a little teensy tiny bit of time, I could find little ol’ Giovanna, and you could rest, or something!”
The judge shook her head. “Let’s just wait until Ms. Stark gets back so we can be done with this for today.”
The doors at the end of the hall opened, and in stepped a very familiar figure.
“Jo?” Travis muttered.
Liberty shook her head at him.
Before Liberty had gone to Beatrice the day before, she’d payed a visit to Jo. She begged her to come as a witness to Giovanna living with them so Zoe didn’t loose the rights to her books, but Jo flat out refused.
“You think I would help that woman after what she put my poor Giovanna through?” Jo had gasped. “Never!”
She’d gone on to explain that she had nothing against anyone else in that house, but the last thing she’d do in life was help out Zoe Presley.
“I don’t care about whatever sort of witchy-voodoo you guys found to transform her into a nice person, because, at her core, she’s still the same person who’d lock a friend in the basement for refusing to move in with her. Someone like that doesn’t deserve my help,” Jo had said firmly.
So, while planning in Beatrice’s front yard, the two had come up with a secondary plan. Beatrice would use her alien powers to take on Jo’s appearance, and testify for Zoe. Beatrice, though initially hesitant to go behind her good friend’s back and pose as her, decided to do so once Liberty reminded her that she owed her for rescuing her from Sixam and helping her get started in Willow Creek.
“Who’s this?” Catherine whispered to Zoe.
“Jo Kauffman…” Zoe muttered. “But she hates me, so I haven’t the slightest idea of what she’s doing here.”
“I’m here to testify for Ms. Presley,” Beatrice said, doing her best to imitate Jo.
“Ms. Stark was going to testify…”
“She looked sick while running for the bathroom,” Beatrice went on. “I wouldn't wait up for her.”
“Very well,” the judge sighed, sick and tired of this dumb court case.
As Beatrice walked towards the chair, the doors at the end of the room flew open again. As soon as Patel saw who it was, her face dropped.
“Jo!” Giovanna exclaimed. “I knew it! I knew you’d be here!”
The judge's eyes widened. “That’s her! That’s Giovanna Cardwell, isn’t it?”
“We can’t be sure about that,” Patel said quickly. “She could be some imposter, or-“
Giovanna hugged Beatrice, who seemed very confused, then sat down right next to Charlie.
“Hahahaha, moo moo!” she laughed.
The judge gasped. “No way! That’s her. Hands down, that is the Giovanna Cardwell. There’s no question, Ms. Presley, the series belongs to you through and through.”
The judge walked quickly from her seat to Giovanna. “Huge fan,” she squealed. She pulled out a piece of paper, and had Giovanna sign it.
“This is dumb!” Patel bellowed. “I worked so hard to win this case to lose to what? This… woman saying hahaha moo moo? No! It’s not fair!”
The judge ignored her.
Zoe Patel screamed at top volume and stormed her way out of the courthouse.
Charlie and Catherine turned to each other, eyes wide. They made a silent agreement.
“Travis,” Catherine said gently.
“Yeah, mom?” Travis asked.
“If… if Giovanna can win a court case just by declaring some nonsensical words… I don’t think even I could stand against her,” Catherine went on.
“What are you guys saying?” Travis stammered.
“In all ways except by law, Travis, you will always be our son, and we will always love you all the way to the moon and the stars,” Charlie said in a rare moment of seriousness.
Tears filled Travis’s eyes as he embraced both of them at once. Because he knew they were right. Whatever happened legally didn’t matter when it came to family. Some stupid papers weren’t going to change how much the three of them loved each other.
Charlie and Catherine were on a plane back home within an hour. For now, everything was back to normal.