The next day at school,
I told Cassie about the change in plans. She promised to talk to Jake who'd
talk to Marco. I'd tell Tobias about it tonight, and he'd pass the message
on to Ax. Efficient communications system we have, huh?
Anyways, since Halloween
was just a week away, I spent the week getting ready for the festivities.
Decorations had to be bought, pumpkins had to be carved, and costumes had
to be bought, made or rented. The party at school was going to be a costume
party, so since everyone had costumes ready, they were being worn to the
party here. I had no idea what Jake, Cassie or Marco were going as, but
I'd been in charge of getting a costume for Tobias, Ax had refused to go
along with the idea. Anyways, Tobias was going as the Phantom of the Opera,
it was the only costume we could come up with that would keep him from
being recognized at school as the last dance we'd had there he'd been recognized.
I was going as a medieval lady since I'd found an awesome costume in a
costume shop.
Halloween finally arrived,
not a day too soon. Sara and Jordan were driving me up the wall in anticipation
of the night.
Just minutes after
they'd left, while I was up in my room finishing my hair, the doorbell
rang. Since there was no tell tale scream of 'Trick or Treat!' I figured
it was one of my friends.
I ran down the stairs
to open the door, where Jake and Cassie were waiting. "Hey," I said, letting
them in. I had stifle a laugh as Cassie struggled to get in. She was wearing
an actual dress, a ball gown. Judging by the tiara on her head, she was
a princess of some kind, Jake looked like he was supposed to be her prince.
"So, who are you two?" I asked.
"Cinderella and Prince
Charming," Cassie replied, not able to hide the disgust in her voice. I
giggled again. "Who got you into the dress?"
She glared at Jake,
"Take a guess." Now Jake laughed.
"No fair," I said,
mock angry. "You can get her into a dress after what, a week of begging?
I've known her forever and she has yet to wear a dress for me for something
besides a dance."
"It was more like a
month," Jake admitted. "But she made me pay by getting me into this costume,"
he added, looking down at his costume in disgust.
The doorbell rang again,
followed by a shout of Trick or Treat. I excused myself and gave the kids
their candy. I was just about to close the door when another came running
up.
I had grabbed a few
pieces of candy to give him, but when I looked back up, I noticed who it
was, Marco. I laughed, "And I was just about to give you some Trick or
Treat candy," I joked, letting him in.
"Hah hah," he replied,
walking past me towards the living room. "Bond. James Bond," he introduced
himself when he saw Jake and Cassie were already there. I rolled
my eyes, and went to answer the door when the bell rang again. This time
it was Tobias and Ax.
Tobias stood there
for a moment, staring, when he saw me. Not very long, but long enough to
make me self conscious of the attention. "Um, come in," I said. Ax walked
in awkwardly, still not used to walking on only two legs. Tobias followed
more slowly.
"You look great," he
said as we walked behind Ax into the living room. I flushed slightly and
smoothed out invisible wrinkles in the blue velvet of my skirt.
"So do you," I complemented.
He was just in the suit and cape of the Phantom, I can't imagine the mask
had been too comfortable, and it wasn't necessary here.
Once in the family
room, I turned on the CD player and the six of us sat around, talking,
me getting up occasionally to answer the Trick or Treaters.
After the door at least
a dozen times, Ax asked me, "Why do you keep answering the door? Answering.
Swer. Swer-ING."
"It's Halloween, Ax,"
I answered. "I keep answering the door because kids dressed up in costumes
come to the door to get candy."
"Ah," Ax said, pretending
to understand. He was silent for a few more minutes, then asked again,
"Why do they get candy? Andy?"
"Because it's Halloween,"
Marco answered, answering nothing. "Trick or Treating. It's what
kids do."
"But are you not kids?
Ids?"
"Technically, we are,
Ax," Cassie tried to explain. "But after a kid becomes a certain age, they
don't go out trick or treating anymore."
The doorbell rang again.
"Ax, come with me. I'll show you the kids who are there. You'll see they're
younger than us." Clumsily, he got up from his seat on the couch and followed
me to the front door.
"Hi, Rachel!" A girl
I vaguely recognized said when I answered the door.
"Um...hi," I said.
"It's Hillary. From
history, remember me?"
Oh, yeah, perfect way
to prove my point! A girl from my history class was trick or treating as
a princess.
I grabbed a few pieces
of candy and gave them to Hillary and the other girl she was with who I
didn't recognize. I said good bye quickly and closed the door, turning
to face a confused Ax. "Okay, that was a really bad example," I explained.
"Some people still like to go Trick or Treating at our age. Don't ask me
to explain them."
He closed his mouth.
Obviously, that's exactly what he'd been planning on asking me to do.
The door bell rang
again. Fearing who might be on the other side, I opened the door...to reveal
a group of rambunctious seven year olds, dressed as everything from Barbie
to Austin Powers. Yes, seven year old Austin Powers. Scary.
Ax watched in interest
as I gave the giggling kids their candy. I think he was a bit envious that
the kids got candy and he didn't, but he didn't say anything. We returned
to the others, Ax deep in thought, and I continued in the conversation
we'd left off on before Ax had started asking about Halloween.
"I would like to go
Trick or Treating. Ing. Ting," Ax announced suddenly.
"Ax-man, hate to break
it to you, but you generally need a costume in order to get candy," Marco
said.
"But I am wearing artificial
clothing. Ing. I like that sound. Ing. Inginginging. Ing."
"Shut up about the
'ing', Ax," I said.
"Sorry. But I am wearing
artificial clothing, is that not a costume?"
"A costume is when
you purposefully dress up as something else," Jake explained.
"I am dressed up as
a human. Man. Huuuuman."
"Fine, let's take the
guy Trick or Treating," Marco said. "We can always say he's an alien who's
pretending to be human. It happens all the time on TV."
"You guys go ahead,
I still have to wait here and give out--"
The door opened and
closed, Mom called out, "We're home!"
"Then again, maybe
I don't," I finished. "Hi, Mom."
"Hi, Rachel!" Sara
said, running to me, her bucket of candy banging against her leg. "Look
at all my candy!"
"That's great," I said.
"Hey, Mom, can we go out for awhile?"
"Why?" she asked, hanging
up her jacket.
I shrugged. "We're
bored, so we figure we could go out, walk around. We're in a group, we'll
be safe."
She considered for
a minute, then grudgingly gave her permission. "But don't stay out too
long. It's getting late, most people have gone home for the evening."
"Gotcha," I called
over my shoulder as the six of us filed out of the house. I'd grabbed a
tote bag as we left so Ax would have something to put his candy in.
"Not many houses,"
I warned as we walked to the neighbors. "We don't need Ax on a sugar high."
"Sugar high? Hiiiiiiiiiiiii?"
Ax asked. "What's that?"
"Long story," Tobias
said, not really wanting to go into it.
We came up to the neighbors
house, the five of us allowing Ax to go ahead slightly. "Push the doorbell,
Ax," Jake coached. "It's the lighted button there. When the person answers,
hold out the bag and say 'Trick or Treat'. Got it?" Ax nodded slightly.
Gingerly, he reached out and pressed the doorbell. After a moment Mrs.
Wilson, our elderly next door neighbor, answered the door.
"Trick or Treat. Reeeeeeeat.
Tuh," Ax said.
Mrs. Wilson looked
confused for a moment, "What are you supposed to be?"
I stepped up before
Ax could answer, "An alien who's pretending to be a human. He's a big 'X-Files'
fan."
Mrs. Wilson looked
wary, but held out her bowl of candy-various mini chocolate bars-to Ax.
"Choose a few."
Ax's eyes widened as
he reached for the bowl of candy. At first I thought he'd be sensible and
grab just two bars, then again, this is Ax we're talking about. How could
I have thought such a thing? He grabbed a handful of the candy. Then another.
He tried shoving the entire bowl into his bag.
"A--Phillip! No!" I
shouted, trying to pull him away. The others helped me, and we hurried
him back down the sidewalk. "Sorry, Mrs. Wilson," I called over my shoulder.
"Yeah!" Marco called.
"Sorry, he's Canadian!" I rolled my eyes. Of course, how was Marco to know
Mrs. Wilson was originally from Canada?
"Ax, what were you
doing?"
Cassie asked once we were back on the sidewalk.
"She said choose a
few. Ew. 'Few' does not specify exactly how many I was to choose. Exactly.
Zzzzzactly."
I sighed and checked
my watch. Nine o'clock. Almost all the Trick or Treaters were back home,
porch lights were blinking off all down the street. "Know what, it's late.
My house isn't going to be fun to hang out at anymore since the rest of
my family is home, so why don't we just call it a night?" Everyone, except
Ax, nodded in agreement. We said our good byes, and we all split
up. Cassie and Jake walking together, Marco going in another direction,
dragging Ax with him. Probably figuring he'd be a smart aleck and give
Tobias and me some privacy.
"Some party, huh?"
I asked sarcastically, wandering slowly back towards my house.
"It was fine," he assured
me. "Much better than anything at school."
I smiled a little.
"It's not hard to have a party better than the school's." I stopped in
front of my driveway. "I'll talk to you later."
"Yeah."
A moment of awkward
silence. I spoke again, "Don't let Ax eat all of that candy tonight. Who
knows how he'd deal with it."
Tobias laughed, "He'd
probably be on the world's biggest sugar high."
"Good night, Tobias."
" 'Night, Rachel."
"Happy Halloween."
"You, too."
Author's Notes: Whew, didn't think I'd get this done in time!!! Anywho, I promise that I'll get back to my famous depressing Hopeless Romantic/Death and Destruction fics now. Oh, and about Marco's little comment...I have absolutely nothing against Canadians. Canadians are wonderful people and Canada is a great place. I was just going with something a friend of mine and I were talking about while we were out Trick or Treating tonight and Ax's comment about his nationality to Cassie's dad in book 34.