If you haven't read any of the Ted's Dolls stories before, you should start with Ted's Dolls 1: Jane before reading this one. 

Emily arrived in the campus ballroom as the event was ready to start. There were various wall partitions creating a mass of corridors within which to discover different tableaus. The first such tableau, seen as one entered the east doors to the ballroom, was a pair of life-sized skeletons kissing. Ted appeared next to Emily, he was wearing a wizarding cape and held a fine looking wand.

“Hey, yer a w'zard, 'arry,” Emily said. She wore the outfit she wore to Rhana's and Earl's only a few days previous to this.

“And you're an elf Princess, M'Lady.” He bowed then kissed her hand.

“Only on Thursdays,” she said. “Oh, I just noticed the skeletons. Their ribs are interlocked.”

“Yes, it was Gillian's idea. I don't know if you know Gillian or Aimee. But they are the skeletal lovers.”

“I don't believe I've met them. But if they've been your dolls, I've seen dolls waiting on your sofa. So, maybe I have encountered them.”

“Encountered. Earl's going to make a RPG gamer out of you, yet.”

A woman wearing a tame naughty nurse outfit walked past the two and took a picture of the skeletons.

“Well, I have to mingle,” Ted said. “Show yourself around.”

“Later.”

Emily followed after the nurse to the next tableau.

On a table, was a disassembled mannequin of Jane. A card on the table read: Do not touch. The mannequin was definitely Jane, Emily thought. But she did not think Jane was going to be part of the display here. She saw the nurse taking a picture of the mannequin.

* * *

Jane entered the ballroom from the western door. She was wearing a “sexy pirate” costume: dark vest, colorful loose blouse, dark baggy pantaloons, boots, and a bandanna worn as a hat. She also had an eye patch over her right eye. In front of her was a life-sized doll of Velma Dinkle searching the ground around her for her lost glasses. Jane let out a small laugh and said, “You'll find them eventually, Tamara.”

“You know Tamara?” said a man behind her.

“Actually, we haven't met,” Jane said turning around. The man was wearing a dark blazer, dress shirt, and tie. He had short dark hair and wore horn-rimmed black glasses. He had a fedora on with a card sticking up out of the hat band that read: Daily Bugle. “I've seen the figurine though.”

“Hi, I'm Peter. I work for the school paper. You must be Jane. Yes, Derek asked you to talk to Ted about Tamara, didn't he?”

“Yes, I'm glad she was a good sport about” – she pointed to the doll – “that.”

“Apparently. Derek, our editor-in-chief, had asked her to cover this event but she said she was part of the event. I didn't know what that meant until now.” Derek took a picture of the Velma doll. “The funny thing is Ted didn't want people advertising his ability and yet here he is showing it off.”

“This show is on his terms.”

“True.

“It seems to be a kind of House of Wax exhibition,” Peter said.

“Oh, where were you when Ted was trying to brainstorm names for this show?”

Partitions divided up the space and the two of them followed the partitions around a corner where they found a life-sized Peter Pan doll complete with a small Tinkerbell flying nearby. The fairy was held aloft by a wire.

“Do you know this one?” Peter said.

A girl dressed as a vampire nearby, said softly, “They're dating.”

“You know them?” Jane said.

“Yes, she rented herself to him anonymously because she was shy.”

“That's a great how I met your mother story.”

They moved on to a display of three witches around a cauldron. It was a traditional coven of three witches: the maid, the matron, and the widow.

“Wow,” Peter said. “That's Lindsey and Paris of Eta.”

“The sorority?”

“Yep, looks exactly like them. I don't recognize the older one.”

“Paris spends some of her time in Ted's room from what I've seen.”

“She does?”

“Scoop!”

“Yeah, I don't think we'll be publishing anything about that.”

Around the next corner was a gorgon and its victim a nude woman turned to stone.

“My,” Peter said.

“I don't think I should say who these are.”

“You know.”

“I've met the statue. My friend knows them better.”

As she spoke, Emily came around the corner. “It's not me.”

“Oh, you were the gorgon. Who's the gorgon now?”

“It's the statue's boyfriend.”

“You aren't going to say who they are,” Peter said.

“Not to a news reporter. I can let them know you want to know and if they allow it, I'll tell you,” Jane said.

“I thought the mannequin on the table was actually you,” Emily said.

“There's a mannequin?”

“Ted must have borrowed one of the test samples from the company.”

“Wait, what company?” Peter said.

“I was hired as a model for new line of mannequins last week.”

“And you got this job after doing the mannequin thing at that clothing store on weekends?”

“Yes.”

“Maybe I'm covering the wrong story.”

“No comment.”

Jane and Emily did not know most of the other figures in the other exhibitions. There were at least twenty people they couldn't account for on display as ghouls and goblins. Some of them were nearly perfect replicas of well-know movie stars.

* * *

Hours later, most of the people had left.

Ted found Peter and Jane talking together by the east entrance to the ballroom. “Are you giving away my secrets?”

“No, he's trying to dig into mine at the moment.”

“You have some good ones.”

“Not helping,” Jane said. “Did you see where Emily went?”

“She's currently a statue, second victim of the gorgon.”

“There you go, Peter. Now you know who one of the statues are.”

“And she knows the other two?”

“She certainly does.”

“What happened to the kissing skeletons?” Peter asked, pointing at the empty space.

“I restored them an hour ago,” Ted said. “Most of the displays are empty now, aside from the gorgon and the statues.”

“Show over now?” Someone said to Ted.

Ted turned around. “Yeah, Burke, you can take the witch back to the dorm.”

“Great,” Burke said. “Here's the donation box from the other entrance.”

“Thanks.”

“Who were the donations for?” Peter said.

“Me, of course,” Ted said.

“Oh, don't be like that,” said Trish, an upperclassman member of Eta Delta Tau. She was accompanied by nearly two dozen members of the sorority. Most of them were carrying props and costumes from the former exhibit tableaus. Ted handed the two donation boxes to two of the sisters. Trish said, “Ted setup this event for the Etas. It's going into our Big Sister Outreach Program fund.”

“And you girls were the dolls here?”

The various girls said yes and indicated if they were goblins or ghosts or witches or Goldilocks or one of three bears.

“Why wasn't this advertised as a sorority fundraiser?” Peter said.

“Because it was Ted's idea,” said Trish.

“It was actually Paris' idea,” Ted said. “And you and Whitney came up with most of the tableau ideas.”

“Where is Paris?” one of the sisters said.

Two other sisters shushed her and the sorority girls said goodbye and dispersed.

Tamara stepped up to the remaining group. “Thanks for having me, Ted.”

“Not at all.”

“Tell no one,” she said to Peter.

“Who me?” He said as the two of them walked away.

“Look at you,” Jane said. “Big man on campus, in tight with the HΔT sorority. Why'd you waste your time on me when you could have started with the sorority?”

Ted walked back into the exhibit hall. It was empty except for one witch standing by itself and the Gorgon display. Jane followed. “Because you were someone I knew wanted to be involved with all this. I didn't know about this girl's desires yet.” He indicated the Paris doll.

“Is she really in your dorm every night?”

“Mostly. I chase her out occasionally. She keeps coming back.”

“By the way Ted, any chance you'll need a doll over Thanksgiving?”

“You?”

“Yes. I can't fly back east for such a short visit. I was hoping to find somewhere to go. It doesn't look like Bluebelle's will need me that weekend.”

“You can't go wherever Emily is going?”

“She doesn't think her stepmom would be happy with her bringing a friend.”

“Well, sure, I can take you home for Thanksgiving. Won't cost you anything if you're a doll when I get on the train.”

“We'll talk about this again later.”

“Sure.”