ᴇᴠᴇʀʏʙᴏᴅʏ ʟɪᴠᴇꜱ/ɴᴏʙᴏᴅʏ ᴅɪᴇꜱ ᴀᴜ
𝒽𝒶𝓅𝓅𝓎 𝒽𝒶𝓁𝓁𝑜𝓌𝑒𝑒𝓃!
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ɪᴛ ᴡᴀꜱɴ'ᴛ ꜱᴏ normal for this group to have a plan so thought-out, but tonight, it was necessary. Tonight was Halloween, and there needed to be a plan for how to get the most and best candy. Basil and Kel were in charge of making a map of everywhere they were allowed to go trick-or-treating to, and Sunny and Aubrey had to go around to get information on the good houses for Halloween. Now, they were at Basil's house to think of a plan.
Aubrey pointed to the houses near the edge of Faraway Town. "These houses are the big houses, so everyone thinks they give the best candy. But actually, these people hate kids, so they give the worst. It only looks like it's the best."
Sunny pointed to the houses around the main part of their neighbourhood. "These houses give the basic candy you always expect. Little kids go here a lot too, so there isn't a lot of candy given out."
"So what do we do?" asked Kel.
Aubrey pointed the houses on the opposite side of the map. "We go to these houses. They're far away, so people don't go there a lot. These houses also have scary decoration, and people who do go there get too scared to go trick-or-treating. Actually, these houses are filled with sweet old people who just want kids to come to their house when they go trick-or-treating."
"So if we go there first," said Basil, his eyes lighting up, "then we can get all the good candy!"
Sunny nodded. "We can come back to the main part of Faraway Town if we want more candy."
"But..." Aubrey smiled as she paused for suspense. "All of the people there absolutely love kids. So, if we make a good first impression—that means we be very nice—then they might let us have more candy next year!"
"So we have to be nice to old people!" Kel grinned.
Sunny narrowed his eyes at him.
"What, you think I'm bad with old people? I'm great with old people! Right, Grandma?" he asked Basil's grandmother who came in to check on them. Even though she was only Basil's grandmother, she treated everyone in the friend group like her grandchildren and wouldn't be happy if they only called her Basil's grandmother.
"You sure are," she said. "Do you kids want anything?"
"No thank you, Grandma." Basil smiled at his grandmother as she left.
"One question," said Kel, "we're going to the houses over there, but how do we get Mari and Hero to agree?"
Sunny seemed to deflate as he said, "I can tell Mari I'll practise on my violin more. She'll get Hero to agree then..."
Sunny started playing his violin almost a year ago. The recital he and Mari played went well, but Mari seemed to be disappointed. The siblings seemed to be keeping a distance from each other, but even thought that was obvious, none of their friends could figure out why. No one wanted to ask them directly either, so they were on their own.
Kel grinned. "Sounds like a plan! Let's do this, guys!"
As they were cleaning up, Aubrey smiled to herself as she thought about Halloween. She loved dressing up for Halloween, and it was so much fun trick-or-treating with the other kids in their neighbourhood. The people in Faraway Town were usually very nice too, but now, they could get really good candy. This Halloween was going to be the best!
. . .
ᴡʜᴇɴ ʜᴀʟʟᴏᴡᴇᴇɴ ᴄᴀᴍᴇ around, everyone made a plan to meet up at the park. Aubrey and Kel were the first ones there.
"Hero isn't with you?" Aubrey asked when she saw Kel coming.
"He's waiting for Mari," he explained. "Sunny's getting ready at Basil's house, and I guess he's worried about what's going on between Sunny and her."
"We all are..." Sunny and Mari were supposed to be the inseparable duo, the siblings who would always be by each other's sides until the end of time. Why were they so distant now? They were perfectly fine just before the recital.
Aubrey didn't want that to ruin Halloween though. She convinced her father to buy her a vampire costume, and she thought she looked adorable. The black-and-pink dress had a skirt that she loved to spin in, and she had cute black boots to go along with it. She had fingerless black gloves on, and her mother helped her made fake vampire teeth—which she was really happy about since it was the first time she actually did something with her in a while. Actually, it was the first time she did something that wasn't arguing with her father or getting drunk someplace outside of Faraway Town. Thank goodness it was her father who appeared as her parent in public.
Kel was dressed up as Captain Spaceboy. He planned the costume out for a while, and he did make it work. He was still really disappointed when his parents wouldn't let him dye his skin blue. Aubrey thought they were right, but as dumb as their arguments could be—she could admit that—she really didn't want to get into an argument about that.
"Mari and Hero agreed, right?" she asked him.
"Obviously! Remember, we're going to all the old people's houses first, and then we're coming back here for any leftover candy."
"And remember to look like a cute, innocent kid. They might be nicer if we're all sweet and innocent."
"Yeah, Aubrey, act sweet."
"Excuse me?"
The rest of their friend group arrived before they could go any further into an argument—which Kel started, by the way. Hero and Mari were dressed up in matching angel and devil costumes, Sunny was dressed as a police officer, and Basil was a beekeeper. He even had a fake bee with him.
Just as they all joined them, Kel immediately said, "Let's go to the old people houses!"
"Kel, we just got here," said Hero. "Don't you want to talk for a bit."
"Nah. I want candy!"
"I want candy too," said Sunny. Basil and Aubrey nodded in agreement.
"Let's let them go, Hero," said Mari. "We can stay here if you don't feel like walking a lot."
Kel grinned at them, and before they knew it, they were allowed to go by themselves to the houses they wanted to go to. All they had to do was make sure they were back in the main neighbourhood by 10:00 P.M. at the latest, don't eat any candy until they were sure they weren't poisoned, and no one had to know they went there without Mari and Hero.
"This Halloween is already so cool!" Kel said as they walked over there. "Imagine how much of the good candy we'll get!"
"It better be worth it," grumbled Sunny.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Nothing."
As the neared the first house, Aubrey whispered to everyone, "Remember to be cute kids who just want to trick-or-treat, guys."
Basil knocked on the door, and when an old man opened it, they all said at the same time, "Trick-or-treat!"
The old man fell into a smile seeing theirs. "Trick-or-treat to you, too. I remember trick-or-treating when I was your age. Frankly, I was scared no one was going to come, just like last year..."
He started rambling, but Aubrey tuned him out. She did her best to look as nice as possible, and when he finally gave them candy—very big and very good—she said, "Thank you, Sir!"
"You're very much welcome, little miss."
Once they stepped onto the street again, Basil whispered, "I think we're good if we keep acting like that."
They went to the next house and acted the same. They did the same for the next house and the one after that. Soon, they finished going to all of the houses, and they had enough candy to last them what looked like months.
"I knew this would be the best Halloween!" Kel high-fived Sunny. "We should do this again next year!"
Basil nodded, but he still said, "Looking at all this candy kind of makes me sick..."
"I can take some of your candy, Basil." Aubrey quickly added, "I'm saying that because I'm your friend and not because I want more candy, by the way."
"I know you were. What candy do you want?"
"Hey, no fair!" Kel exclaimed when he noticed Basil giving her a chocolate bar. "You should give me and Sunny some too!"
Sunny shook his head. "I have a dentist appointment next week."
"So? We should still get candy! We helped with today too!"
Aubrey scowled. "This isn't about who helped and who didn't."
Basil started rummaging through his basket of candy. "Here, Kel, what do you want?"
"You shouldn't let him bully you into giving him—"
Kel brought her attention to him when he snatched one of the chocolate bars from her basket and ran off.
"Kel, get back here!" Aubrey left Sunny and Basil there as she ran after him.
Kel was fast, but she was fast too. She was catching up to him, and she was sure she would be able to steal her candy back when she tripped.
She would've gotten back up if there wasn't a sudden pain in her ankle.
Aubrey tried to pull herself to sit up, gritting her teeth at the pain. She heard Basil call out her name as he and probably Sunny too were running to her, but all she could focus on was how bad her ankle hurt.
Once Basil and Sunny caught up to her, Sunny crouched down. "I think you twisted your ankle."
If she still wasn't gritting her teeth from the pain, she would've said that was just what she needed on Halloween.
"Can you stand up?" He frowned when she shook her head.
Basil was picking up the candy that fell from her basket. Kel was coming back after realizing she wasn't chasing him anymore, and when seeing him, Basil said, "Kel, can you get Hero and Mari? Aubrey twisted her ankle..."
"What?"
With Kel now here, Aubrey felt like she had to show him everything was fine. "It's nothing. I don't need any help."
"My cousin went to the hospital after twisting her ankle once," said Kel. "I'll go get them!"
Aubrey sighed, ignoring Basil who held her once-again-full basket. Her mind had gone to thinking what her parents would say when they found out, and she wished she could die in a hole.
. . .
ᴀᴜʙʀᴇʏ ᴅɪᴅɴ'ᴛ ɢᴏ to school after Halloween night. She didn't leave her house much either. It wasn't because her ankle was sprained badly or anything. She was actually pretty sure it was okay now if not for the fact it still hurt whenever she put weight on it.
Her parents grounded her. It was her punishment for spraining her ankle along with taking her Halloween candy. She didn't know what they did with it, but she was relieved, in a way. Even though there was work put behind getting that candy, she was happy that was all they did.
Almost a week after Halloween, someone knocked on her front door. Both of her parents were out, so she went to open the door. It was getting easier to walk now.
"Hey, Kel," she said when she saw him.
The first thing he said was, "Why are you walking?"
"My ankle wasn't sprained that badly. I can walk and stuff, but I'm grounded, so..." She shrugged.
"Why are you grounded?"
"It's my punishment."
"Punishment for what?"
"Are you going to keep asking questions?"
"Yes...?"
She still smiled. "If you really want to know, it's because I sprained my ankle. I lost my Halloween candy too—"
"Why?"
Her smile fell. "Why what?"
Kel was looking at her like she lost her mind. "You got grounded and lost your Halloween candy because you sprained your ankle?"
"I wouldn't say 'sprained' since it isn't that bad—"
"That makes the fact you're grouned even worse! It wasn't your fault you twisted your ankle!"
Aubrey shrugged and looked somewhere else. She had been to her friends' houses plenty of times, but they never went inside hers. Everything about their lives looked so much better than hers, and it made her feel embarrassed about her own. It was good she remembered not to ask him if his parents never punished him just because they felt like one was needed even though he didn't do anything. That was probably just something her parents did.
"Well, since you lost your Halloween candy, it's a good thing I brought mine." Kel showed her his basket still full of his Halloween candy. "Umm... When you didn't come to school...I thought your ankle was really bad. You were chasing after me, so...this is kind of my fault... So I brought you candy. As an apology. I'm... I'm sorry..."
Aubrey frowned. "Is Hero making you do this?"
"No."
She would think he was lying if he didn't look so embarrassed. The way he was shuffling his feet and kept his head low made her consider he was actually telling the truth, but he would never come to her on his own free will to apologize. If it wasn't Hero who made him come, it was probably someone else.
"I'll take some of your candy, thank you very much!" Aubrey took a chocolate bar.
Kel mumbled something she couldn't hear. His face got a little red when she asked him to repeat it. "I said you can have all the candy if you want. I don't need it..."
Something was definitely wrong. Why was he being so nice? Was he actually just doing it because he wanted to and not because someone made him? If so...that was actually very nice of him. It would be the first time she could remember of him ever doing that to anyone, let alone to her. The thought of it made her feel a weird sense of joy.
She smiled at him, feeling an urge to look cuter but not to get more candy like last time. "Thank you, Kel. That's very sweet of you."
He looked up and met her eyes for a second—was it just her, or did he grow taller? He quickly looked away and ducked his head more, making his brown hair fall over his face. She felt oddly disappointed from not being able to see his face.
Why was she feeling this way towards him?
"Do you want to eat these together?" Aubrey asked him. For some weird reason, she didn't want him to go just yet.
Kel shrugged. "If you really want to..."
She smiled. "Let's go to the park!"
"Aren't you grounded?"
"It's basically over. I convinced my parents to unground me before November 11ᵀᴴ so I could come to your birthday party." She actually didn't. She was actually planning to sneak out to his birthday party and face the consequences for it later.
Seeing him smile at that, though, made it worth it. It gave her a weird satisfied feeling in her stomach, and she wanted to see more of it.
As Aubrey walked with Kel to the park, she realized she had to get him a really good birthday gift. How else was she supposed to repay him for giving her all of his Halloween candy? And besides, seeing him smile like that again would be better than any amount of chocolate she could get.
- - - -
𝚃𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚘𝚗𝚎 𝚜𝚑𝚘𝚝 𝚠𝚊𝚜 𝚜𝚝𝚊𝚛𝚝𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚝𝚘 𝚕𝚘𝚘𝚔 𝚕𝚒𝚔𝚎 𝚖𝚘𝚛𝚎 𝚙𝚕𝚊𝚝𝚘𝚗𝚒𝚌 𝙺𝚎𝚕𝚋𝚛𝚎𝚢, 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝙸 𝚠𝚊𝚜 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚔𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚘𝚏 𝚔𝚎𝚎𝚙𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚒𝚝 𝚕𝚒𝚔𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚝. 𝙱𝚞𝚝 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚜𝚎 𝚊𝚛𝚎 𝚛𝚘𝚖𝚊𝚗𝚝𝚒𝚌 𝙺𝚎𝚕𝚋𝚛𝚎𝚢 𝚘𝚗𝚎 𝚜𝚑𝚘𝚝𝚜, 𝚜𝚘 𝚢𝚘𝚞𝚛 𝚐𝚒𝚛𝚕 𝚙𝚞𝚕𝚕𝚎𝚍 𝚝𝚑𝚛𝚘𝚞𝚐𝚑 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚑𝚊𝚍 𝙰𝚞𝚋𝚛𝚎𝚢 𝚜𝚝𝚊𝚛𝚝 𝚐𝚎𝚝𝚝𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚊 𝚌𝚛𝚞𝚜𝚑 𝚘𝚗 𝙺𝚎𝚕 𝚝𝚘𝚠𝚊𝚛𝚍𝚜 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚎𝚗𝚍. 𝙷𝚊𝚙𝚙𝚢 𝙷𝚊𝚕𝚕𝚘𝚠𝚎𝚎𝚗, 𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚢𝚘𝚗𝚎!
𝚆𝚘𝚛𝚍 𝙲𝚘𝚞𝚗𝚝 (𝚗𝚘𝚝 𝚒𝚗𝚌𝚕𝚞𝚍𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝙰/𝙽): 𝟸𝟺𝟾𝟷