Olive carefully sidestepped O'Malley's glowing sword and straightened her slightly wrinkled dress. With one last deep breath she stepped as boldly as she could through the large double doors into the center of head-quarters. The room was marvelously decorated, courtesy of Oscar, she guessed. Olive scanned the crowed room searching for one person.

She caught sight of Otto standing in-between Octavia and Oksana. Both girls were staring each other down with such ferocity, Olive couldn't help but jump to conclusions. She had known for a while now that Octavia just might, ever so slightly, like Otto. This didn't bother her too much; Octavia was nice after all. But Oksana?

Olive felt a heated blush rise to her cheeks. The unmistakable signs of jealousy rose within her and she frowned. Was it possible that she liked Otto? It wasn't unheard of to have a crush on your partner. But did she?

Olive shook her head. She would have to think about this later. Right now, her top priority was getting Otto away from her rivals. Wait, rivals? Olive mentally slapped herself.

To Olive's relief, however, Otto didn't seem to be paying attention to either of the other girls. He was staring at her. In fact, he looked overjoyed to see her. But that was probably just because he wanted an excuse to escape from his uncomfortable situation.

"Hi" Olive smiled in greeting.

"Hey" Otto smiled back and stepped away from Oksana and Octavia who had broke off staring at each other and were now staring at Olive. Octavia looked at her with something between a friendly smile and a grimace, and Oksana with her usual impassive gaze.

"Thanks for showing up when you did. I don't know what was happening over there." Otto looked gratefully at Olive.

"No problem. Um, what kind of cake do they have?" She wanted to draw the topic away from the other girls as quickly as possible.

"Huh?" Otto looked confused.

"The cake, remember? You were worrying about what kind would be here." It was strange for Otto to forget about something food related.

"Oh, right, the cake," Otto smiled, suddenly remembering, "There's chocolate and vanilla but there's also carrot cake, red velvet, angel food cake, cheesecake, and for some reason spaghetti cake."

Olive made a face at the mention of the last flavor. It must have been Oksana's doing, "You didn't eat any did you?"

"No, but I might try some later."

Olive made another face.

"Come on Olive, aren't you even a little curious to see what it tastes like?" Otto shoved a cookie in his mouth.

"No thanks. It's all yours." Olive turned away from the food table.

There was a few moments of silence in which Otto crammed another cookie in his mouth.

"Oscar really outdid himself." Olive gestured toward the decorations.

"Yeah" Otto swallowed his cookie, "He told me he had to catch a bunch of Meeps for the disco ball."

"Meeps? That explains why Oscar looks tired. They're super difficult to catch." Olive looked impressed.

"What are Meeps?" Otto asked exasperatedly. Olive was about to answer when Miss O appeared on the top of her balcony. She was wearing an over-the-top sparkly, purple dress.

As a sudden hush fell over those assembled, Miss O spoke, "I'd like to thank you all for coming tonight. I'd also like to thank Oscar who caught the Meeps for the disco ball."

There were admiring gasps from the crowed. One security guard, who was new to Odd Squad, blurted out, "Wow. He's really brave!"

Frustrated, Otto whispered under his breath, "What are Meeps?" No one answered him, however, as Miss O began to speak again.

"To start off the night, there will be freestyle dancing followed by ballroom dancing which Oscar and I will kick off. The party ends at midnight with the official countdown and final dance. Let the Soundcheck begin!"

Immediately the remix version of Take Away One began to blare on the loudspeakers. Otto cheered and sprang onto the dance floor as Olive groaned and sat back to watch.

As Olive watched the dancers, she had to admit, Otto was definitely enthusiastic. He flung off his jacket and loosened his tie as he took center stage for the song Up, Down, Left, Right. Olive smiled and took a rectangular cupcake. She noticed she had been doing a lot of that tonight, smiling. It felt surprisingly good. She mentally decided to make an effort to do it more often.

"Poor Olive. Sitting all alone because she's too good to dance with everyone else."

"Oren," Olive turned to frown at him as he approached her, "I'd rather wait until later to dance. You know, save my energy." 

"Ah yes. The ballroom style dancing. Actually, you should stay right were you are. It's not like anyone's going to ask you to dance anyways." Oren smirked.

"Of course someone will ask me to dance. Otto will!" Olive blurted out, surprised at her own daring.

"Him?" Oren sneered. "What makes you so sure that he'll ask you?"

"Because he's my partner and my friend." Olive shot back.

"I bet you that someone else will ask you to dance before Otto even thinks about asking you. Either that, or no one will ask you at all."

"I bet you that Otto will be the first to ask me." Olive only half-believed this, but she desperately wanted it to be true.

"If I ask you to dance, before Otto does, then you'll dance with me. And you'll act like you're enjoying yourself." Oren narrowed his eyes.

"Fine. I'll do it." If there was one thing Olive couldn't turn down it was a challenge from Oren.

He smirked triumphantly and walked away.

Before Olive had even a moment to reflect on the slightly strange nature of Oren's request or about why Oren would challenge her in the first place, the music lulled, the lights dimed, and Miss O and Oscar took center stage with a single spot light. They began to waltz so gracefully, Olive couldn't wait to try; she glanced at Otto, who had put his jacket back on and straightened his tie, she just hoped the right person would ask her.

.........................................................................................................

Just a quick note, I don't ship Oscar and Miss O. I know lots of people do and I'm fine with that, I just personally don't ship them. I see them as really really good friends who have been working together for a long time and therefore have a great friendship. Nothing romantic on the premises. In the words of Oona,  "And like, come on. End of discussion."