Disclaimer: Characters are not mine, I own nothing.

"Pssst! Alex!" Sean's ginger head poked around the doorway. His eyes swept over the room and he glanced over his shoulder suspiciously.

"Yeah?" replied Alex halfheartedly. He didn't bother looking up from the comic book he was flipping through.

"Uh…you seen the Professor around?"

Alex shrugged. "I thought Raven was making him go to the store with her. He'll probably be gone all day."

A huge smile spread over Sean's face and he practically squealed with delight. "Duuuuude!" He disappeared into the hallway and returned, dragging a massive and rather dusty box. "Check it out."

Alex sat up, tossing the forgotten comic on the coffee table. "What did you do?"

"The better question would be what did I find!" Sean said, then turned his back on Alex and began rummaging through the box.

Unable to see around the other teen, Alex stood and moved closer, curious. "Alright. I'll bite. What'd you find?"

Sean made a little noise that sounded close to "Ah hah!" and pulled something from the box. He turned to Alex, plopped a pirate hat on his head, scrunched up his face, and said, in a gravelly pirate voice, "Avast, matey! I've found hidden treasure!"

Alex shook his head, but he couldn't help a small chuckle. "What?" He opened the box fully and looked inside. It was filled with costumes and props. "Where'd you get this stuff?"

"It's the Professor's old Halloween stuff. I found it in the attic." Sean explained, placing an eye patch over one eye. "I hear he used to be a prankster in his college days. I bet we could learn a thing or two from him."

"Because he hasn't taught us enough these past few months?" Alex casually placed a cowboy hat on his head.

"Not about what's really important." Sean grinned and held up something pink and rubbery.

Alex took it. "A whoopee cushion? Heh. I might use this on Hank."

"He'd try to rip your face off."

Alex snorted. "Here, try this on." Alex grabbed something from the box and tossed it to Sean.

Sean held it up in front of him and made a face. "Dude, it's a dress!"

"You're observant."

He shrugged. "Okay." Sean discarded his pirate garb and began stepping into the dress. "You have to put something on too. What about that?" he said, nearly falling over as he put his new costume on over his jeans and t-shirt. Alex traded his cowboy hat for the gorilla mask Sean pointed to.

"You think the Professor will let us decorate the house for Halloween?" Alex's words were muffled by the mask.

Sean gasped. "Yeah! And we can go trick-or-treating! I haven't done that in years."

"Or…we can throw a massive party. Halloween is the perfect holiday for freaks like us. Even Hank could be himself, for once. Plus, we live in a freaking mansion."

"Alex, buddy, you are brilliant." Sean said, sliding on a pair of nerd glasses that he found at the bottom of the box. "You think the Prof will go for that, though?"

"We'll have to come up with a way to hide it. It won't be easy. As soon as either of us starts acting suspicious, he'll read our minds and figure out that we're up to something."

"I don't have to read your minds to know when you two are scheming."

Both boys jumped and turned to see Charles wheeling himself into the room. He looked from Alex, only his wide eyes visible behind the gorilla mask, to Sean, who picked at a thread on the dress he still wore. Charles stopped beside the box and peered inside.

"If you two think you're going to throw a wild Halloween party," Charles said this without looking up from the box, his tone calm but stern. "...in my house," He reached into the box and pulled out a gray fedora hat. He examined it for a moment and then placed it on his head. "I better be invited."