And in the end the glitter you take is equal to the sparkle you make

Captain Dither ran to his makeup chair. He hurried through putting on his makeup. Captain Dither hadn't expected to run into Joe or that Joe would take him for a ride. He was glad for it though. Talking to Joe had rested a lot of Captain Dither's fears. At least he wasn't in trouble, anymore.

Captain Dither finished his makeup. He threw on his costume and dashed outside to waiting parade floats. There were three parade floats. One for each of the three drag queens that would be performing. One float was large with gold and green fringe as well as a throne under a shiny crepe arch. There were two smaller floats in blue and silver fringe with pink and red crepe roses all over.

The whole crew was there. They were in various states of costume. Not all drag. The only ones in drag were Allan, Devonne, and Captain Dither.

Nick arrived. He had several large bags of candy loaded onto a dolly. He yawned. "Dither, Devonne, and Allan, I want each of you to take a bag of can... can..." Nick yawned, again. "Excuse me. Candy. There are three different floats, you three are each going to ride a different float. We're going to pause..." He yawned. "At different spots along the parade rout. While we're paused, my queens; Dither, Allan, and Devonne; are going to be throwing candy to kids in the crowd. We're going to play music. Feel free to sing, dance, do whatever. Just keep it PG13. I don't want angry letters from parents."

The responses from the actors were mixed as they all answered Nick at once. Allan and Devonne each picked up a bag of candy. They had the benefit of being on time instead of hanging out with Nick's dad. They had obviously been given prior instruction as to which floats would be theirs. They each took one of the blue and silver floats. By process of elimination, Dither assumed that the gold and green one was his. He picked up his bag of candy and went over to it.

"Hold up, Dither." Nick's voice made Captain Dither pause. "I'm riding with you on your float."

"Sure thing, boss." Dither smiled. He offered a hand to help Nick onto the float. Captain Dither didn't argue when Nick sat in the throne. Captain Dither moved to step up. His heels made him wobble a little but he didn't fall, which was a good thing. Captain Dither wasn't sure that he could get back up, again. Not while maintaining his dignity in that short skirt.

Captain Dither bent to open the bag of candy. As he did so, he heard soft snores coming from the throne. Captain Dither glanced over and saw that Nick was out like a light. His head rested in his hand. A soft rumble was heard in the distance.

Nick had hired some additional helpers to drive tractors to pull the parade floats. Three tractors drove up and were hitched to three parade floats. The mayor arrived so he and his wife could walk ahead of the floats. The child actors would march in one group between the first silver and blue float and the gold and green float. The adult actors and directors and other crew would walk behind the Gold and green and the last blue and silver float. Lastly, Nick's dad would drive his car waving and tossing out whatever candy he had in his car.

It wasn't a big parade. The route was about a mile and a half. It would do to bring people to the studio parking lot where a screen had been set up and the movies that had been made would be showing on endless repeat. A small stage had been set up under the screen where performers would be performing plays to warm up the audience for the movies on the screen. Each of the floats had speakers placed that would play music throughout the parade route. All that remained was that was to get the show on the road.

With a clank and a jerk, the parade lurched forward. From his vantage point, Captain Dither could see that the streets were lined with people. He looked over at the sleeping Nick. Captain Dither knew that Nick would be mad he missed the spectacle, but he also knew that Nick was exhausted. Captain Dither empathized, he remembered being hammered with delivery after delivery with no rest in sight. Captain Dither allowed Nick to continue sleeping.

Captain Dither focused on the crowd. He smiled and waved to everyone. Whenever he saw kids he threw out heaping handfuls of candy. Captain Dither wasn't sure if the crowd understood what was going on, but he knew that they were having fun by the smiles on everyone's faces. Captain Dither was having fun, as well.

Captain Dither remembered that he was in costume. He decided that he wanted to play to the crowd a little. He started winking and blowing kisses to the crowd. The crowd loved it. Their cheers rose louder.

Captain Dither looked behind the parade line to discover that members of the crowd were following them. Captain Dither grinned. It was getting harder and harder to contain Captain Dither's excitement. He threw some more candy and blew more kisses to the crowd. Captain Dither was almost sad when the parade float he was on stopped at the end of the route.

Captain Dither turned to reach out to the sleeping Nick. To try and wake him. Nick's Dad had arrived by then. "No need to wake sleeping beauty, Dither." Joe called out, which caused Captain Dither to pause. "He worked hard all night, let him rest. If you worked with Nick, you should know the next step in the plan for today."

Captain Dither backed away from Nick. "The Queens had some speeches to deliver on the stage under the big screen on the parade grounds. "What I learned in drag school.'" Captain Dither answered Joe's question. "We could perform those."

"Good." Joe commanded. "The queens can go to the stage and perform their speeches. I need a volunteer to hang out in the ticket booth and sell DVDs. Who wants to be it?" J-wow raised her hand. "Good, J-Wow you are it. After the speeches, we'll start the videos that we've produced. Queens, I want you walking around. If you want to sell autographs, you need to be visible. Alright, everyone, places. Your public awaits."

The group of actors and crew scattered to their spots. Captain Dither made a beeline over to the stage. The speeches were already recorded for the DVD. This time, they were doing the speeches live and in front of an audience. Captain Dither was ready to put his own spin on it. He just had to remember to make it pop with flash and flare for the crowd.

Captain Dither arrived at the staging area. He waited in the wings with Devonne and Allan. Some bleachers had been set up so guests could sit and watch the show.

Joe took the stage. He stepped up to the microphone. "LADIES AND GENTLEMEN. BOYS AND GIRLS. PEOPLE OF ALL KINDS! WELCOME AND I HOPE YOU ENJOY THE SHOW!" Joe began. "MAY I INTRODUCE YOU TO OUR QUEENS! DEVONNE, ALLAN, AND CAPTAIN DITHER!!!"

The crowd began cheering and clapping. Captain Dither, Devonne, and Allan climbed the stairs to get onto the stage. Captain Dither forgot that he was suppose to be serious and fabulous. He broke out into a grin, waving to the audience. He lined up with Devonne and Allan on stage.

"GIVE THEM ANOTHER ROUND OF APPLAUSE, FOLKS!!" Joe continued, then, paused for more applause. Joe smiled to himself when he saw Captain Dither reveling in the adoration. "OUR QUEENS HAVE SOME VERY SPECIAL WORDS FOR YOU!! IT SEEMS THEY'VE BEEN TO DRAG SCHOOL VERY RECENTLY AND THEY WANT TO TELL YOU ALL WHAT THEY'VE LEARNED!!! ALLAN, YOU'RE UP!" Joe stepped aside and let Allan come up to the microphone.

"UM... HI, EVERYONE!!" Allan pretended to be all nervous. "WELCOME. WELL... UM... I WANTED TO LET EVERYONE KNOW HOW HAPPY I AM TO BE HERE1" Allan paused for some applause. "WHAT I LEARNED IN DRAG SCHOOL WAS DANCING WHILE UNCOMFORTABLE!!! WOOO!!!" Allan bounced and kicked to laughter and applause. He stepped aside and let Devonne take over the microphone.

Devonne did a hair flip that had the audience howling. "WHAT I LEARNED IN DRAG SCHOOL WAS SOMETIMES YOUR BEST SQUIRRELFRIENDS CAN TURN INTO YOUR BEST FRIENDS!!!" Devonne went over to join Allan in the wings while Captain Dither approached center stage.

Captain Dither strode up to the microphone and loud and proud he shouted. "WHAT I LEARNED IN DRAG SCHOOL WAS THAT ABOVE ALL, YOU HAVE GOT TO BE FIERCE AND FABULOUS!!!" Captain Dither left the mic and went over to Alan and Devonne. The trio giggled, wildly and dashed off stage.

"WELL THERE YOU HAVE IT!!" Joe took back control of the microphone. "WHAT OUR QUEENS LEARNED IN DRAG SCHOOL!! DON'T HESITATE TO STICK AROUND, WE HAVE GAMES, WE HAVE RIDES, WE HAVE DVDS AVAILABLE OF OUR FILMS. HAVE A GREAT NIGHT EVERYBODY!!!" Joe left the stage to cheers. Just as his foot left the final stair, the movies started playing on the big screen.

From there, everyone was supposed to walk around. They had to interact with the crowd. They had to be friendly. Captain Dither didn't really know what to do. So he just did what he did when he was a delivery driver. He hung out and kept things casual. Some of the people in the crowd were his former customers and they recognized him. He stopped and posed for pictures with everyone that wanted.

When it got dark, lights came on so people could see and still have fun. About 1 in the morning, Nick finally woke up. He stretched on the throne on the parade float. He checked his watch. Nick face palmed. He couldn't believe that it had gotten so late and that he slept through it all. He climbed off the float and made his way to the ticket booth, while weaving his way through the final partiers. Nick could tell that the guests had had a good time by the sleepy, sunburned, grins on their faces. The parade and carnival had been a success.

As Nick approached the ticket booth, he could see his crew gathered round. Captain Dither had found a bucket to sit on. He had his shoes off and was massaging his feet. "How'd we do?" Nick asked. He trotted up, eagerly.

"J-wow is doing the final count, now." Joe informed him.

"69997, 69998, 69999..." J-wow counted aloud. "70 thousand!" She looked up at Nick. "We made 70 thousand, sir." She looked at the expenses verses the take in. "And after adding everything up... we broke even. We didn't lose any money, but we didn't make any profit, either."

"So, close!" Nick hung his head. He didn't want to say that was the end. Then, a thought occurred to him. "Captain Dither?"

"Yeah...?" Captain Dither croaked. His voice was starting to go out on him.

"$1 buys the production company, right?" Nick asked his dad.

"That's right, $1 dollar buys the whole thing." Joe confirmed.

Nick reached into the ticket booth for a DVD and a marker. He also pulled out his wallet.

Seeing what his son was doing Joe spoke up. "Now, wait a minute, Nick. How do you know that Captain DIther will buy the studio? If you pay him a buck for his autograph."

All eyes were on Captain Dither. He could feel it. "Sure. I'll buy it." He was too tired to argue. "One Dollar, please." Captain Dither took the dollar and signed the DVD. "Joe?" He handed the dollar over to the old man. "And Nick gets to visit whenever he wants."

"Deal!" Nick shrieked with joy. The production studio was saved. It now belonged to Captain Dither, but it was saved.