Man, would Chelsea Daniels not have totally plotz'd had she known as a teen that she'd get to plan a middle school dance someday?! I sure think so. At the time, she would've hired Rainbow to perform, made the dance 'nature' themed, and served vegetarian snacks. High School Chels was the greatest. Although, adult Chels is pretty cool too ;)
Booker and Tess are hanging up a banner to promote the sixth grade dance. Levi is quick to bring them back down to earth by reminding them that their role is to simply provide cups and plates, as Chelsea is doing the party planning. This doesn't damper their spirits!
They're full of swag, alright. And they're going to make sure everyone has a great time at the dance. Nia is concerned about actually dancing at the dance, and Booker proceeds to demonstrate some of his famous moves... until Principal Wentworth puts the dancing to a halt.
He's sure he caught Booker gyrating, which Booker denies up and down.
Moments later, Raven and Chelsea show up at the kids' school - Raven thinking it's Thursday, her pick-up duty day. In fact, it's actually Friday - Chelsea's day. Raven admits she's stressed from work, AKA designing clothing for dogs. Principal Wentworth approaches the women, apparently him and Chelsea are good friends. Raven and the principal? Not so much.
Raven is shocked to hear Chelsea is planning the dance, explaining that she was busy watching The Rock on TV when she told her so she wasn't paying attention (totally valid in my books). She volunteers to be the chaperone of the dance, as usually she doesn't partake in school events and wants to be involved. Unfortunately the position is already filled, but Principal Wentworth suggests that Raven bake cupcakes for the dance! She's totally down.
...until she discovers she'll be baking 500 of them!
Principal Wentworth tells Raven that he'll get an involved parent to bake the cupcakes if she can't, and as we know, Raven Baxter NEVER backs down from a challenge. She's baking the cupcakes.
Back at the apartment, Nia is trying to get opinions on what she should wear to the dance.
Um. Is she actually Raven Baxter's child?! What even is that? Booker is concerned that if Nia wears blue they'll be "twinsies".
Even though, as Levi points out, they are twins. But apparently they just double booked Raven's womb.
Everyone shuts down the dress, encouraging Nia to focus on what shoes she'll be wearing for when they do a 'dance circle', with a spotlight on the dancer. Apparently someone in a previous year took out the whole dessert table while showing off their moves - all that precious dessert went to waste!
Nia starts dancing for Levi, Tess and Booker. They're judging her hard. When she realizes she didn't dance very well, she tries to make a joke of it - saying she's saving her moves for the dance. Booker's relieved, as according to him he's in charge of swag at the dance. Nia leaves to rehearse in her room.
Booker and Tess have been preparing their plates:
And cups!
OK, those are adorable. I definitely wouldn't mind eating a cupcake off of a Booker plate and drinking some punch from a Tess cup! Booker then has a vision of Tess worriedly saying they'll be blamed if the dance is lame!
Wow! That's a lot of gold in one picture!
Booker tells Tess what he saw, and they decide to check out Chelsea's dance binder in the living room to see what ideas she's come up with.
Chels walks in, and Booker asks what they can do to take some stress off of her with the dance planning. The two suggest arriving at the gym a little early to start setting things up while Chelsea does errands, which she greatly appreciates. Now they can make the dance how they want it! (Despite Chelsea telling them to refer to the binder for the exact details of how to set things up. But that's just a small oversight).
In the kitchen, Raven is designing graduation gowns for dogs graduating from obedience school. This job just keeps getting better and better. She tells Chelsea that she has everything under control - so much so, that she might donate blood at the hospital later on. Chelsea leaves her be, and Nia walks in, shocked to hear Raven is partaking in dance preparation.
Nia asks her about dancing in the 'dance circle', and Raven says at her school dances they had dance lines. Then, this happens and i'm LIVING for it.
Just wait.
OH SNAP!
Nia confesses that she's scared to dance, and Raven reassures her daughter that she got her dancing skills from her mama. Nia asks what will happen if there's a spotlight in the dance circle. This gets Raven even more hyped, which I didn't think was possible! Here we go!
That is a leap IN THE AIR my friends.
Nia is obviously as excited as we are. Raven tells her to get right in that spotlight, girlfriend!
Booker and Tess are trying to figure out the theme of the dance, now that they're in charge of setting it up. Looks like Booker already has an idea in mind:
Yee haw! Tess isn't for western, pushing for an old school hip hop theme.
But Booker already has a whole ensemble!
Awwe darn. The two butt heads, eventually agreeing that one of them will have to give in. They agree, one of them will give in... but neither of them actually give in. This'll make for an interesting dance!
Late that night, Raven is sleep baking. And sewing. And just sleeping.
A timer goes off and she gets up to ice the cupcakes. Luckily Levi is awake and helps out!
Levi continues following Raven around the kitchen, yelling at her to wake up. Eventually she does, asking why Levi is awake. He had a nightmare that his potassium was low, so he woke up to eat a banana. Levi's a kid after my own heart. Before he can go back to bed, he notices a gnarly situation unfolding in the oven:
Well that's not good.
The next morning, Levi walks in on Nia practicing her move for the dance circle. She tells him that people are too judgemental in sixth grade, and to never grow up.
I'm kind of agreeing with that statement.
Levi says he thinks Nia's putting too much pressure on the dance, and Nia misinterprets this to mean he's saying she shouldn't dance.
In the school gym, Booker and Tess discover they're in a bit of a wild situation...
It looks like Party City threw up. They panic, Booker accidentally falling onto Tess's decorative boom box. She thinks he did it on purpose, and breaks one of his decorations. Chelsea walks in, angry at both of them. She sadly announces they'll have to cancel the dance as the gym is a mess.
The kids plead with Chelsea to help them fix their mistake - to which she agrees, but only if they'll follow her direction.
Their new job is to stay put on the bench.
Meanwhile, Commander Chels is giving orders to other students. She sounds like she's been getting lessons on the art of raised voices from Coach Spitz - the angry gym class substitute teacher who was at school a few episodes back.
That night, Nia arrives at the dance - which is officially Hip Hop Cowboy, Chelsea proclaims. Raven walks in soon after, still looking exhausted.
But LOOK at that little puppy graduation cap she's wearing! Apparently it's to cover up some icing that got stuck in her hair. Raven and Chelsea sit down, Raven stating that she feels as if she never gets to do things with her kids because she's always working - which is why she was only able to bake 300 of the 500 cupcakes promised. Chelsea assures Raven that she is in fact there for the twins, Raven replying that being a single mom is hard.
Chels reminds her BFF that baking cupcakes isn't what defines her as a good mom - it's the fact that she is, truly, just a good mom. She then suggests they go to the grocery store to buy the rest of the cupcakes; but not to worry, they'll take the price tag off of them to make them appear homemade.
The dance circle starts, and wow, does Booker have moves or what?
Nia still won't dance, and Raven asks her what's wrong. She says she's embarrassed, and Raven doesn't want her to ruin her night because she's afraid of what others think. To encourage Nia to dance, Raven drags her out to the dance floor. We're then graced with another Raven Baxter dance routine.
Nia soon after joins her, and the two have their own little dance party!
Even Principal Wentworth is into it!
The rest of the fam then enter the dance circle, without a care in the world. Until Chelsea puts Booker and Tess on cleanup patrol at the end of the night. Then they care a little.
Again, I love the message this week's episode conveyed. To this day, I still have concerns over what others think of me - it's a hard fear to conquer. Although, since starting university, i've done things I never thought i'd do because I didn't believe I could. If this episode teaches us anything, it's that we can. We all have those awesome moves in us, in any situation! That idea in itself is pretty liberating.
Down below, let me know who you think has the best moves in the Baxter/Daniels fam, if you prefer old school hip hop or western (in music and party theme), and what YOUR favourite flavour of cupcakes is!
Catch Raven's Home Friday Nights on Disney Channel.
