Zachary Hanson stared out into the street from the living room window, his eyes set on the last of the trick-or-treaters making their way down the paths, their neon costumes and make up glowing in the streetlights. Outside houses, jack-o-lanterns glowed, fake skeletons hung from trees and black-cat cutouts were taped to windows. A typical Halloween scene.

Zac sighed unhappily. This had to be one of the most boring Halloweens he’d ever had to spend. Of course, it was meant to be boring, Zac was grounded, and without privileges tonight. No scary movies, no potato-chips, no comics and no phone-calls. Zachary was paying for playing tricks on people, he’d been warned off by his father of course, but Zac had chose not to listen. Instead he’d forced all his energy into making everyone else’s life a misery, and had succeeded in driving his father up the wall, and made everyone else cranky.

Zac sighed, turning away from the window, and looking over the living room out of boredom. The lights were dim, the television was on, its programme was ‘Frasier’. A Jack-o-lantern Taylor had carved sat on the mantle, its candle inside flickering eerily.

Isaac was stationed on the couch in a slumped position, his arms folded, his expression brooding, dark brown eyes squinting at the television. Isaac hadn’t spoken a word in the last hour, and that was because he was angry with Zac. Isaac had spent most of his time this week trying to convince their parents to take Jessica, Avery and Mackenzie – the three younger siblings – to their aunts. Diane and Walker – their parents – would be going to a big Halloween party and Zac would have been staying overnight at his friend Ethan’s. So that would have meant Isaac and Taylor were free to go to the party. When Zac had been grounded, however, this had cut Isaac's plans in half. Isaac – being the most responsible brother – had been chosen to baby-sit – Whilst Taylor got to go to the party which Isaac considered most unfair.

Zac had tried to apologise but Isaac was having none of it, Isaac was just too upset that he was missing such a great party – which was only across the street – and that he had to baby-sit his immature brat of a brother on Halloween.

Zac got up, moved over to his chair and collapsed back down. "Ike," Zac whined to his eldest brother, "do we have to watch ‘Frasier’?"

"Yes," Isaac uttered under his breath, and turned the volume up, so it drowned out the music from across the street which seemed to be travelling powerfully over the whole neighbourhood.

"You’re not gonna take orders from dad and not let me watch the horror movies, are you?" Zac used a certain tone to try and indicate that taking orders from their parents was the unfit thing to do. At least, it was for Zac at this particular moment.

"And why not?" Isaac turned, glaring, his left eye narrower than his right as always when he frowned. "I could have been at as really great party tonight, Zac," Isaac used that tone that always made Zac guilty when he spoke about things like this. "I was really looking forward to it! Then you had to spoil my plans by acting stupid! So it stands to reason that if I have to sit home and be miserable, then you’re gonna also have to sit home and be miserable as well. Capeesh?" Isaac turned away again to watch TV, his frown permanent on his face now.

"Aw, man!" Zac groaned and leaned back in the chair, folding his arms too. He stared at the jack-o-lantern, it seemed to grin at Zac, if it wasn’t just a silly vegetable with eyes, a nose and a mouth carved into its front, Zac would have sworn it were silently laughing at him.

Freaky, Zac thought, looking away from the jack-o-lantern. "This bites," Zac said to himself.

"I don’t know what you’re complaining about, its me who got shit on," Isaac sighed, and got up. He moved over to the window and looked outside, and Zac came over to look too. There were barely any lights on in the house, but through the front bay windows people could be seen dancing and passing by, laughing and talking. Taylor was amongst them, unaware his brothers could even see him from where he was standing.

"Tay looks like he’s having a good time," Zac admitted, turning to see Isaac. Isaac’s expression was that of a left out teenagers, looking longingly at the crowd he wanted to be in.

"Damn, I wish I was there," Isaac grumbled unhappily, turning away from the window and walking over to the fireplace to get a heat.

Zac felt an immediate guilt. Isaac had been excited about going to this party, and now Isaac's sense of fun had been crushed by Zac’s mistakes. I’m the reason he’s not going. Because I don’t know when to quit, Zac thought at himself, the voice in his thoughts harsher than his father had been this morning on the grounding decision.

There was a moment of silence, Zac looked back to Isaac, Isaac was biting his fingernails out of habit, whilst with the other hand he was flicking channels on the television with the remote control.

He’s my big brother and he always does nice stuff for me, Zac considered the time Isaac had always defended him to their parents accusations – when things happened around the Hanson household, Zac was usually the first to be blamed.

And what about last week? Zac thought at himself. If Ike hadn’t taken the blame for smashing moms antique vase which I actually broke then I’d have been grounded for life…I should at least repay my debt to him, right?

Zac sighed. "Ike, look, why don’t you just go anyway, mom and dad aren’t gonna be back until after two…"

Isaac groaned. "Get real, I’m more responsible than to leave a twelve year old in the house on his own," Isaac seemed bitter.

"But, Ike…" Zac said sighing. He wanted his brother to go suddenly. He realised that if Isaac went to the party for the last remaining hour or so – then he himself would have the chance to watch horror-movies and eat the junk-food his parents had banned him from.

"Never mind," Isaac shook his head, and at once, giving into being so sore with his brother for getting grounded and needing babysitting. "C’mon, Zac. I know we’re not supposed to…but lets go make some popcorn and sit and watch Halloween. We have five minutes so lets hurry."

"Ya mean it?" Zac asked excitedly.

Isaac looked regretful that he was giving up the chance to go to the party, but he shrugged. "Sure."

Zac skipped happily to the kitchen, and then paused, out of the corner of his eye, he saw a flash of white, he wasn’t sure what it was, because it was outside by the window, he let out a yell and turned in a jolt, there was nothing there but the dark and the drapes blowing gently in the breeze from the slightly open shudders.

"What is it?!" Isaac jumped, hearing Zac yell something unrecognisable, he shot forward, looking around. "What? What is it?!"

Zac shook his senses back into himself, and reached up, scratching his head, his fingers brushing back his fine blonde hair. "Nothing…just felt a jab of pain run up my leg, I think I might have pulled a muscle or something…" Zac lied, not really wanting to sound immature and say something like ‘I saw something white outside’.

Isaac rolled his eyes. "Hey, did you open this window?" He asked.

"Nope," Zac answered. "Mom opened it before she and dad left."

Zac paused in the middle of the room, staring into space. What did I see…it looked like something white. Probably a cat or something.

Isaac closed the window and pulled the drapes. "Get the popcorn," he ordered Zac.

Zac shrugged out of his thoughts, and searched out a bag of microwave popcorn, whilst Isaac began to pour some potato-chips into a large bowl decorated with Chinese patterns. "Ike, if you want to, you can still go to the party," he said, appreciating his brothers kindness for allowing him to have popcorn and to watch the movie.

"Nah, that’s okay," Isaac admitted. "Its just probably not much fun over there anyway…"

"If it wasn’t then Tay would be here now," Zac pointed out, shoving the popcorn into the microwave and he punched in the setting and then pressed start.

"Are you trying to get rid of me or something?" Isaac asked with a slight smile.

"No, no way…I mean, we’re cool, we always have fun when we hang out, right?" Zac asked.

"Right," Isaac nodded, and opened the refrigerator door and pulled out a couple of cans of soda.

"Hey…" Zac grinned mischievously and picked up the wall phone receiver, he began slowly punching in a number with his thumbs, giggling.

"Oh, no, Zac. Not that…c’mon now, we could get into trouble!" Isaac fretted.

Zac still giggled, then stopped, he put the phone to his ear. "Oh, hey," he said. "Is Tay there?"

Isaac sighed in relief, he’d assumed Zac was going to make a crank phone call. Zac was always doing stuff like that.

"Hey, Tay…what's up?" Zac asked, he leaned against the wall, coiling the wire around his fingers. "How’s the party?" he asked.

Isaac heard the ‘ping’ of the microwave and he moved over and took the popcorn out of it, and he opened the bag, leaning over to smell the fresh hot popcorn.

Zac pressed the speakerphone button and listened as his brother replied.

"The party is totally rocking…and after midnight, we’re gonna go to the cemetery…" Along with Taylor’s voice, came the well known party theme Timewarp. The sound of laughter passed through, and some party-poppers going off.

Isaac picked up on the conversation between Zac and Taylor by the speakerphone. "No way, Tay. Mom said you’re to be home by midnight."

"Aw, c’mon, mom and dad aren’t even gonna be home until well after three in the morning!" came Taylor’s groan.

"No. I’m the oldest, I’m in charge."

"You can’t do nothing about it if I go anyway," Taylor reminded.

"I can tell mom and dad and they’ll kick your ass," Isaac grinned.

"Okay, Okay, I’ll be home by midnight," Taylor gave in.

"See ya later, bro," Isaac called.

"Bye, Tay!"

"Bye losers!" Taylor called into the phone, blowing a raspberry, then he hung up.

Zac hung up too. "Sounds like there's a lot going on over there…" he said, then he grinned. "Betcha you thought I was gonna make a crank-call a moment ago."

Isaac sighed in surrender. "Okay, so maybe I assumed as much."

Zac smiled in a distant way. "Remember a couple of years ago when we used to make crank calls on the time…We thought it was so cool when your voice changed because you used to call up girls and breathe down the phones in a really obscene way…and it sounded like you were some pervert or something…"

Isaac knew it was sick to make phone-calls like that just for a few laughs, but it was still funny. Isaac chortled, whilst tucking his hair behind his ears.

Zac wiggled his eyebrows suggestively as he reached out for the phone again. He held his finger above the speakerphone button. "Dare you…"

"Oh…I don’t think so…" Isaac shook his head. "I'm too old to be doing stuff like that now, Zac.

"Aw, come on, Ike, just for the hell of it…" Zac pressed the speakerphone button quickly, listening to the empty tone.

"Well…I could always press the lock so that no one can trace the call," Isaac figured. "But who could we call?"

Zac thought for a moment. "How about…that girl next door?"

Isaac thought for a moment. Kathy Andrews lived next door, and she was a total bookworm. Isaac had been the only one to actually meet her, Taylor had never even laid eyes on her, and Zac had only seen her all of two times and had never bothered introducing himself. Kathy was pretty in a plain way, but none of the boys liked her much because she was so…well…plain. Because she’d only recently moved into town, she hadn’t even heard of the brothers fame yet, and due to the brothers not being in their hometown that much, they’d only seen her a couple of times. Isaac found it strange she didn’t know how famous they were. Isaac decided to do this just for the audacity of it. "Okay, Kathy it is…I just happen to know that her parents are out tonight – I saw them driving off this evening," Isaac explained. "So we know for definite who’s gonna answer the phone."

Zac giggled excitedly. "Okay…um…" he flicked through the phone book on the little shelf under the wall phone and found the number, he dialled it in quickly, then waited, hearing the ringing, he shoved Isaac over to the phone, grinning ear to ear.

Isaac leaned close to the phone, ready to get a few laughs.

"Hello, Andrews Residence," Came Kathy Andrews voice a moment later.

Zac nudged Isaac playfully.

Isaac contained the sheer will to laugh that was building up, and he began breathing heavily into the phone.

"Who's that?" came Kathy’s anxious tone.

Isaac suppressed the laughter controllably, and continued breathing.

"Who is this?!" Kathy demanded, her tone becoming a little more frightened.

Zac waited for Isaac to get to the best part of making these phone calls. Zac had his hands over his mouth, trying to force himself not to laugh until there were tears rolling down his cheeks because he needed to laugh so hard.

"I know where you are, Kath, and I’m coming for you," Isaac whispered harshly into the phone, then waited, hearing the tone as Kathy hung up on him. He immediately began laughing. "That was cool," Isaac said in his imitation of MTV’s Butthead.

"Man, you used to do the Freddy Kruger voice!" Zac complained, but then started laughing, wiping away tears of laughter.

"I couldn’t think of a line," Isaac shrugged and turned off the speakerphone. "C’mon, that movie is about to start…" he said, finishing off the last of his laughing as he turned grabbed the bag of popcorn and the bowl of potato chips as Zac grabbed the sodas. They made their way to the living room.

Zac plopped down on the couch instantly, turning the channel just in time as the Halloween Jack-O-Lantern began to come closer and closer on the television screen. He grinned triumphantly, and opened his soda, taking a quick sip, and then got comfortable, with the bowl of potato chips settled in his lap.

Isaac let out an almost barely audible sigh, and munched down a handful of popcorn, Zac knew he was still thinking about the party.

"Geez, man, if you want to go that much, just go," Zac said to Isaac.

Isaac shook his head. "No, I can't…who’d watch you?"

"I don’t need watching," Zac said. "I’m twelve years old…"
"I don’t want you sitting in the house on your own," Isaac said.

"Fine, don’t go to the party…they’re gonna go a graveyard and everything, and mom and dad aren’t gonna be back for hours and you have the chance to have fun…"

Isaac frowned. "I’d go if I thought you’d be okay, but its not safe, and what if something happened to you? Like what if a burglar broke in and hurt you or something? Do you realise I could get into major shit if that happened."

"But its not likely to happen, now, is it?" Zac asked, raising an eyebrow.

Isaac reached out for the phone, and dialled in a number.

"Who are you calling?" Zac asked.

Isaac didn’t answer. "Hi…that you Kathy?"

Zac frowned. "Another crank call without the voices?" he whispered.

Isaac shook his head. "Hi, Kathy…this is Isaac…from next door…" he began. "I need to pop out for a while…and I was wondering…if you’re not doing anything…could you come over and sit with my little brother for an hour or so?"

Zac hated only being able to hear his brothers side of the conversation.

"I know its really late, yeah, but see…you know the party across the street? Well, I’ve been invited…but I got stuck in babysitting Zac because he got grounded…Zac says its okay if I go, but I don’t want to leave him on his own. If you do this, I’ll do anything for you, anything if you just—You will?? Aw, Thanks, Kathy, you’re the best…see you when you get here…bye!"

Isaac hung up and Zac sat staring at his brother with shock. "You’re having that plain-Jane over to baby-sit me?!" he demanded.

"Hey, its only for an hour," Isaac assured. "Listen, Zac. All she’ll do is sit and watch TV with you, that’s all…I heard the music from the movie in the background when I was on the phone with her, so she must want to watch it too…"

Zac sighed. "Well…okay," he gave in.

"Okay, I’m just gonna go change into something a little nicer," Isaac said and then rushed off.

Zac felt doomed. I’m going to have to sit and watch television with Kathy Andrews? Heaven help me!