Just a few rooms down the hall from Mr. Gaffer, two of the senior girls, Kelly and Cheryl, began to experience their own toonification from their exposure to the Giggle Gas. Although Charlie the Cheetah had counted on them being asleep, the two girls were actually still awake in their room at this late hour and were quietly watching television. They'd tried several channels but this being ToonWorld, each one was naturally dedicated to animated cartoons. Immersed in the show they were watching, neither girl had noticed the black rubber hose slide under the door or the quiet hiss of the Giggle Gas as it filled the room.
Kelly, a quiet brunette, was the more bookish of the two and had grown up in a household where both her parents were university professors. They had banned her from watching cartoons at an early age and attempted to direct her toward more serious pursuits. Cheryl, on the other hand, was a closet fan of cartoons even though she'd just turned eighteen. A born entertainer, she was a member of the Chattahoochee High drama club and show chorus. It had been her idea to watch some late night television after their arrival at the Acme Hotel. Her giggling at the onscreen antics of the famous characters Carl the Cat and Matt the Mouse had kept Kelly awake and initially annoyed the more shy girl, but as Kelly began to watch she admitted to herself that the cat and mouse duo were pretty funny.
"He hee, that one was a classic!" laughed Cheryl, turning to her roommate as the closing credits for the show began to roll. "Ha, yeah, you're right, it really was funny! Especially the gags with that mouse," agreed Kelly. "He was a pretty brave little guy." She admired the brown-furred mouseboy's willingness to take on the larger, more fearsome feline, along with his silent physical humor that stood in stark contrast to the loud-mothed cat's more obvious jokes. "Kind of handsome, too," she whispered quietly. Kelly's ears literally twitched at the remark, and she turned to face the other teenager girl to crack a joke about her odd "love interest." A new 'Carl and Matt' cartoon was beginning, however, and looking across the room Cheryl could see that Kelly was totally mesmerized. The plot involved repeated attempts by the mouse to send various Valentine's gifts to his rodent girlfriend, only to have each one intercepted and smashed by the jealous cat. "Gosh, he really is a sweetheart" Kelly murmured as her tailbone started to ache. She'd never had any boy go to such lengths to show his love for her.
As she lay on the bed, chin resting on her arm, Matt the Mouse suddenly turned towards Kelly as if he'd heard exactly what she said. The television began to flicker and both girls watched in awe as the animated mouse pushed his head and upper body through the television screen and directly into the hotel room. As he did so, his flat image became a three dimensional living, breathing character. Before she had time to react, Matt leaned forward and kissed Kelly on the cheek. Taken totally by surprise, the brunette could only think to blush and smile. The mouse then held up a large sign on a wooden stick that read in clearly printed type: "You're a sweetheart yourself, sweetheart!" He then threw it behind him and pulled another sign out of thin air that simply read, "Come by my club tomorrow night and let's dance!" He then popped back into the television screen and continued with the show as if nothing had happened.
"Holy smokes, that was amazing!" gasped Cheryl. "Max the Mouse himself actually hit on you!" The Giggle Gas was blurring Cheryl's memory and perception of reality. The fact that Kelly's two front teeth had grown long and rodent-like, or that a long pink mouse tail had snaked out and over the back waistband of her pajama pants, went totally unmentioned.
Kelly giggled and playfully threw a pillow from her bed at her roommate. "And what about you? Who are your cartoon crushes, Cheryl?" asked the slightly embarrassed and much more mousey brunette.