Back at the van, as Brenda scribbled plans for her lasagna-plushie pop-up festival, Juan had a sudden, ridiculous epiphany. He threw his lasagna plushie into the air, narrowly missing my face, and shouted, “I’ve got it! The plushies need music! That’s what’s been missing this whole time!”
I sighed, already bracing for whatever insanity was coming next. “Music? Please don’t tell me you’re thinking what I think you’re thinking.”
Juan struck a triumphant pose. “I’m starting a band! A plushie band! We’ll be Avengers of the Plushies, playing polka music across the land, spreading the plushie gospel!”
“Polka?” I asked, incredulous. “Why polka?”
Juan looked at me like I was an idiot. “Because it’s upbeat, lively, and, most importantly, no one expects it! The plushies demand originality!”
Brenda clapped her hands. “Juan, that’s a banger of an idea! A plushie polka band could be the next big thing!”
“No, it couldn’t,” I said, trying to bring some semblance of reason to the situation. “First of all, Juan can’t play an instrument. Second, no one listens to polka anymore except for, like, 80-year-olds in small-town community centers.”
“Shows what you know,” Juan said smugly. “I’ve already come up with the first single: ‘Polka for the Plushies.’ And I’ve got backup dancers—every plushie I own will be on stage with me.”
Brenda gasped like he’d just discovered the cure for cancer. “Juan, you’re a genius! This could be the next Lasagna Emporium idea! Music, food, and plushies—what a combination!”
“And where are you going to find a polka band?” I asked, crossing my arms.
Juan gave me a sly grin. “We don’t need a band. I’ve already got a synthesizer accordion app on my phone. And you”—he jabbed a finger at me—“are going to be on the drums.”
I blinked. “What? No. Absolutely not. I’m not enabling this madness.”
“Too late! Brenda already ordered you a drum kit off Craigslist!”
Sure enough, Brenda held up her phone, showing a confirmation email. “It’s getting delivered tomorrow morning! This is going to be a banger of a plushie performance!”
I groaned, but Juan wasn’t done yet. “We’ll debut the band at the plushie-lovers meetup in Stanley Park next week. It’s going to be epic! Think about it—polka music echoing through the trees, plushies cheering us on. And we’ll close the show with our anthem, ‘The Plushies Must Be Avenged Polka.’”
“Kill me now,” I muttered.
Juan didn’t hear me. He was too busy practicing a wildly off-key polka melody on his phone’s accordion app while Brenda jotted down ideas for plushie-themed choreography.
By the end of the day, I was somehow roped into helping them rehearse. Juan, wearing a lederhosen plushie costume, danced maniacally around the van, waving his stuffed eagle. Brenda belted out nonsensical polka lyrics about lasagna and plushie justice, and I banged on the Craigslist drum kit like a man whose spirit had been crushed under the weight of unrelenting chaos.
As Juan spun around with his eagle plushie, he shouted, “Polka is the future! The plushies demand it!”
And with that, I knew we were doomed.