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skeletons and ghostbusters
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. ✧ ・゜. +・o ✧
Back at home, Alina and Will both ate a quick microwave dinner before prepping for trick-or-treating. Alina redid her makeup, with more care this time around, copying off an image she'd found in a magazine, and emerged from the bathroom triumphant. The whole costume was pretty realistic, and Alina knew she would take some awesome pictures. With a smile, she met up with Will, and Jonathan took some pictures of the two. She wasn't dreading it like she had been this morning, and she found herself really smiling as the camera clicked and flashed.
After doing several poses—some with just her, some with her and Will, and some with the whole family, including Bob, who'd dressed up for the occasion, and Skywalker, who Alina couldn't resist dressing up as a ghost—Jonathan finally set the camera down. Bob had the idea for Jonathan to vlog the entire trick-or-treating experience, and so, while he taught him the basics, Joyce spoke to Alina and Will, putting the latter's proton pack back on.
"Listen," she instructed, "stay close to Jonathan, okay? And listen, listen, listen," she grabbed Will's shoulders. "If you get a bad feeling or anything, you just tell him to take you straight home. That applies to both of you," she added, and Alina startled, before a wave of fondness shot through her as Joyce pat her shoulder. "You promise?"
Will gave her a thumbs-up. "Okay."
"Got it," Alina added. She couldn't help but feel excited. Even though today hadn't been great—it'd been a roller-coaster with all of the ups and downs she'd had, she couldn't wait for her first (and probably last—she didn't see her and her friends trick-or-treating next year, when they were in high school) real Halloween she'd ever had.
"Alright, you ready, you two?" Jonathan asked, coming over to them. Alina wished he didn't have to come with them, but that was what Joyce insisted, her fear for Will overriding her empathy for their 'coolness'. Alina knew Will was embarrassed about it—he'd pleaded to Joyce for them to go alone multiple times, with arguments ranging from "there will be loads of other kids out, we'll be fine!" to "it's not like we're going to be alone, we're going with the party!" But Joyce had been unmoved, and thus, Jonathan was to be coming with them.
