The leaves outside the window of Sanji's Algebra class had long left behind their green hues, and had cycled through reds and yellows, resting now, the brightest of them, on orange, and the not-so-fortunate ones on a dull brown. And that was just the ones that still clung to their trees; the jet-black branches of many of the trees were bare, looking like twisted hands reaching to scratch the deep blue of the sky. There was barely more than a week left in October.
Sanji got out of class early that day because he had a test. He was alright at math, so he wasn't too worried, even if it was supposed to be the midterm. Between that and the nice fall weather outside, he was in a pretty good mood as he made his way down the halls, his sights set on getting some food from the cafeteria. Then he spotted Nami, one of his best friends. She was sitting in one of the forest green armchairs, her Macbook in her lap and her face in her hand. She was wearing a bright pink hoodie and jeans, her legs crossed and her short, strawberry-blonde hair in a tiny ponytail. Even from down the hall, Sanji could tell that she was fretting about something, her lips pursed in the way that they only ever got when she was stressed out and trying to hide it.
Well, if I didn't go over and try to offer some comfort, Sanji thought, what kind of friend would I be? He sauntered over to her, hoping to infect her with his own good mood. "Hey, beautiful," he said. Nami looked up and gave him a sad smile that he was sure she thought would be convincing.
"Hey, Sanji," she said. "What's up?"
"I'm on my way to the cafeteria," he said. "Wanna come?"
Nami glanced back at her laptop as though pondering the prospect, and revealing that it was definitely the source of her stress. Before Sanji could figure out how to comment, Nami stood up. "Okay," she said. "I need the distraction."
Sanji led her through the art building and down to the cafeteria, where Nami helped herself to one of their tuna wraps, while Sanji got a grilled cheese sandwiches and fries. Everything from the grill was really greasy, but it tasted good enough that even a food snob like Sanji could appreciate it. As they got to the cash register, Sanji broached the topic that had been picking at him.
"What were you looking at?" he asked, grabbing two bottles of Coke, one for each of them. "Seemed like it was pretty important."
"Well, kinda," Nami said dismissively. "I'm just finishing up a paper for my English Lit class. It's supposed to be my midterm, so it's kind of a big deal."
"I'm sure you'll do fine," Sanji assured her. "You write great papers."
"Would you mind looking it over?" Nami asked. "It would mean a lot to me."
"Of course," Sanji promised. Then, to the cashier, he added, "Together." The cashier nodded and rung up Nami's food with Sanji's. Nami glared at him, but she couldn't help but smile.
"I can pay for myself, you know," she told him.
"Sure you can," Sanji said, "but what kind of gentleman can't even provide food for his very good friend?" Nami rolled her eyes, but made no other protests. The two of them found an empty table to sit and eat while Sanji went over Nami's paper, an analysis of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus.
As far as writing went, Nami's paper was pretty good. The sentences flowed naturally, there were no significant typos, and each paragraph had a distinct purpose and argument, which was saying a lot for a seven-page paper. As for the content, Sanji could see no problems. In the essay, Nami was proposing the argument that, contrary to the popular narrative, Frankenstein's Monster was not an innocent victim. She acknowledged that the scientist may have set him on a path of self-destruction by rejecting him, but his fears had proven right, as the monster had gone on to commit wanton murder. "The creature's rejection by Frankenstein does not absolve him of his own monstrous crimes," Nami's paper finished.
"That's pretty good," Sanji said. Nami thanked him. "I don't know what you're freaking out about, I'd give it an A."
"Maybe..." Nami said, "but I'm still worried."
"Why?"
"Well, it's my teacher, Professor Omatsuri." Sanji nodded, although he'd never heard of the guy before. "A bunch of other students told me that he's really strict on grading, and if your paper argues something he doesn't agree with, he's guaranteed to give you low marks on it."
"What? That's stupid," Sanji said. "Even if you make a good argument?"
"He'll still say 'you missed the point', or some shit," Nami said bitterly. "We talked about a Sherlock Holmes novel last week and he called out one of the students because they tried to say that this deformed pygmy was supposed to represent how Britain saw natives, when he was trying to say he was a symbol for the villain's evil." She shook her head. "And then when we talked about Frankenstein in class today, he really hammered home the idea that Victor is the monster, and that the creature basically had no choice but to be evil because of what he did."
"Well, even if that's true," Sanji said, "he can't dock you points for disagreeing. I think you can report him for that."
"I don't think so," Nami said. "People've been complaining about this guy for years. I wish I could just scrap the whole thing and rework the paper, but I sent it last night."
"You shouldn't even have to do that," Sanji assured her. "If he gives you something like a C on the paper, maybe you can make that up by the end of the semester?"
"Sanji, you don't get it," Nami said. "There's a lot riding on this! If I don't keep my GPA up, I won't be able to transfer to a four-year college next year! Hell, I might not even graduate! Best case scenario, that sets me back a whole year before I can get my degree, and I don't want to do that!"
Sanji nodded. "Okay, okay," he said. He scratched his goatee thoughtfully. There didn't seem to be much he could say to assuage Nami's fears. "All we can do is wait," he said. "Until you get your grade, we won't know what to do about this."
"Right…" Nami nodded. Sanji could tell that his advice wasn't anything new to her; just kind of a disappointment.
"Hey," Sanji piped up. "I know what'll get your mind off this stuff." She looked up. "What are you doing for Halloween?"
"Well, it's a Monday," Nami said, "so I'm going to class."
"You only have one class on Monday, though, right?" Nami nodded. "So what if we throw a Halloween party?"
The corners of Nami's mouth twitched. "Kind of short notice for a Monday night party, Sanji," she pointed out.
"We'll just invite the regular guys," Sanji said. "You know Luffy, Usopp, and that green-haired edgelord won't be doing anything. And we can invite that hot classmate of yours, Robin."
"She's probably not going to want to go to a party with a bunch of college kids who aren't even old enough to drink," Nami pointed out.
"Well, invite her anyway. If she says no, that's fine, then it'll just be the five of us," Sanji said. "We can dress up, decorate your house, bob for apples, watch scary movies...you know, the usual shit."
Nami drummed her fingers. "Well…" she said, pursing her lips, "...I'll need to buy some decorations. What time are you out of class?" Sanji's spirit soared.
After Sanji's last class, the two of them got into Nami's mom's car and drove to the mall, where they found a Spirit of Halloween store, sitting in a section of the mall where neither of them could say for sure what had been there before. They spent an hour just going through the store, picking out the coolest decorations, then painstakingly budgeting themselves and dropping some of the pricier ones. After getting dinner at P.F. Chang's, they went to Party City for costume ideas, although neither of them ended up buying anything. "I'll get something over the weekend," Nami assured Sanji. "Besides, we wouldn't want to ruin the surprise, now would we?" Sanji liked the sound of that.
That Monday, Sanji took a bus straight from college to Nami's house. His classes ran later than most of the other guys, so he figured he was probably going to be the last one there; all the better to make a big dramatic entrance, right?
Nami answered the door, wearing a bright-red flapper costume, with a feather boa, a feather tiara, and a lot of cleavage. "Hey, Sanji!" she said excitedly.
"You look great," Sanji said, trying to keep his eyes on hers.
She clearly recognized his struggle and winked at him. "Thanks," she said. "Your costume's not bad either," she added.
Sanji had put together a Phantom of the Opera costume, complete with a black cape, plumed shirt, and a mask that covered the entire right side of his face. "Thank you, my love," he said, giving his cape a flourish.
Stepping into the living room, Sanji saw that Nami had made good use of the Halloween decorations they'd bought. Gargoyles flanked the door, black and orange streamers and fake spiderwebs hung from the ceiling, and there wasn't a blank wall that didn't have a poster of a witch or a vampire or a werewolf. "Wow, everyone made it," Sanji said as he looked around. Luffy and Usopp had gotten started on bobbing for apples, and Robin was hanging around a table with a spread of booze with Zoro.
"Not everyone!" Luffy declared irritably, turning away from the bucket. "Nami didn't even invite Chopper!"
"I'm not gonna let a reindeer walk around and wreck my mom's house!" Nami said.
"He's our friend!" Luffy said. "Besides, he can behave himself!"
"I said no!" Nami said, smacking Luffy. Sanji was momentarily entranced until a plastic sword waved into his view.
"Avast, knave! I recognize by your dark cloak and masked face that thou art a villain!" came the voice from a suit of armor. "Draw your weapon, you foul demon, and we will commence battle for the hand of this fair maiden!"
"Who are you supposed to be?"
"I am Sir Wordsmith, loyal hand to the crown and esteemed knight of-!"
"Usopp, I know that's you," Sanji interrupted. "Your nose is sticking out of the visor."
"What?" Usopp dropped the voice he was doing for the knight. "Luffy! You said you couldn't tell!"
"What?" Luffy said, his mouth full of candy corn. "No, I said you can't see your collarbone through the costume."
"Why would I be asking about my collarbone?!"
"What are you supposed to be?" Sanji asked Luffy. He was wearing a red bandana, fake dreads, and a vest.
"I'm Cap'n Jack Sparrow!" Luffy said with a big grin. He then swaggered as though he were drunk, and said, in an awful Johnny Depp impression, "Where's the meat, love?"
"Jack Sparrow drinks rum, Luffy," Nami told him.
"Oh, right," Luffy said. "Where's the rum, then!"
It was then that Usopp grabbed Luffy in a headlock, declaring that he'd captured the dreaded pirate. Sanji laughed and walked over to the table of drinks. "Lookit that," he mused to Zoro, "you actually wore a costume. What're you supposed to be?"
Zoro was wearing eyeliner, a leather pants, sleeveless leather vest littered with safety pins, and had spiked his green hair all over the place. "Billy Idol," he said. "What, haven't you ever heard of him?"
"My bad, I thought you just bought the 'Punk Rocker' costume from Party City," Sanji shot back.
"Settle down, boys," Robin warned, smirking at the two bickering undergrads. She was wearing a white dress and a short wig with a gold tiara, making up a pretty impressive Cleopatra costume.
"You look great, Robin," Sanji swooned. Robin smiled and thanked him politely. Nami rolled her eyes.
"My mom left us a spread of booze," she said, cracking open a beer. "She told us to help ourselves so long as nobody pukes in the house."
"Awesome," Zoro said, and uncorked a bottle of Jack Daniel's, taking a swig from it.
"Where is your mom?" Sanji asked Nami.
"Wouldn't you like to know?" asked Usopp, raising his visor to give Sanji a lascivious grin.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"We've all seen you staring at her," Zoro said.
"Shut up!" Sanji said.
"Gross," Nami said. "Anyway, she's out at a bar or something. We pretty much have the house to ourselves 'til, like, midnight."
"Alright!" Luffy declared. "Let's get this party started!"
After Nami put on a playlist of music from Oingo Boingo, the Misfits, and The Nightmare Before Christmas, the six of them started drinking, eating candy, and playing Halloween-themed games. After an hour of "Never Have I Ever", though, the party started to get restless.
"Okay, everybody," Nami said, standing up from her seat on the couch, "what do we want to do next?"
"Drink." Zoro emptied a bottle of rum into his throat.
"Let's go trick-or-treating!" Luffy shouted.
"Yeah!" Usopp agreed.
"We're too old for trick-or-treating," Nami said.
"You're never too old for trick-or-treating," Luffy said.
"That's definitely not true," Zoro replied with a grimace.
"Come on, guys," Nami said. "I'm open to suggestions."
"Well," Robin said, "I do have one idea, maybe you guys will be into it."
"I already love it," Sanji said. "What is it?"
"Well, what if we had a horror story contest?" Robin asked. "Kind of like Mary Shelley and Lord Byron did back in the day? I was just hearing about it in class the other day."
Sanji glanced at Nami. The entire point of this party was to get her mind off her grade; maybe this wasn't the sort of game she'd want to play? However, she was nodding. "That could be fun," Nami said. "Is everyone down?" The group was almost unanimously enthusiastic.
"Ugh," Zoro said. "Pass. Can't we just watch a slasher movie instead?"
"Come on, dude!" Luffy nudged him. "Don't be a downer! This'll be fun!"
And so everyone set up in a different room, with a notebook or a laptop, or something else to write with, to write a tale of chilling horror. Nami set the parameters; only a couple pages each, and they'd all share what they wrote when they were done. After forty-five minutes, they all came into the living room to read their stories.
"Alright," Nami said. "Let's start. Luffy, you wanna go first?"
Luffy pouted at Nami. "I couldn't write anything," he groaned.
"Are you serious?" Zoro said. "You were the one who was all excited for this!"
"I just kept staring at the page and by the time we were supposed to be done, I hadn't written anything!" Luffy whined.
"It's okay, Luffy," Nami said. "Usopp, how about you go instead?"
"Sure," Usopp said. Everybody drew close as he started. "It all began one dark and stormy night…"