§ § § -- October 15, 1982

It was quite likely the biggest bash the Fantasy Island High Class of 1983 had ever seen. Myeko Sensei's Halloween party was pretty much the talk of the school, and Leslie Hamilton felt privileged to be one of the invitees. It was a Friday night a couple of weeks before the party itself, and Leslie and her friends -- now seniors at the high school -- were sitting in a cluster on the edge of the fountain outside the main house, chatting about the party, which was in its final planning stages.

"So," said Michiko Tokita, counting off on her fingers. "You've bought all the decorations; you have all the snacks and drinks; you've decided on the time, date and place. Okay, I guess what's left now is the guest list. Have you finished that?"

"No," Myeko admitted, only a little sheepishly, and the other girls laughed. "It's a good thing you're around to keep reminding me of what I can't remember. My parents said I can invite as many people as I want, providing I do all the cleanup afterward."

"Then you can invite the entire school," Lauren McCormick teased, grinning.

"Except a few people," put in Camille Ichino, Lauren's cousin. Michiko shot Camille an irritated look and Leslie scowled at Camille. They had both grown tired of Camille's abrasive personality, and had learned of late that they weren't the only ones. Maureen Tomai and Myeko herself had reached the limits of their patience with her as well. Leslie, Maureen, Myeko and Michiko had talked uneasily about the situation once in Lauren's and Camille's absence, and the four of them had agreed that they were probably including Camille in their gatherings only for the sake of Lauren, who was quite different from her cousin and whom they all liked very much.

"It's Myeko's guest list, Camille, and she can invite anyone she wants to," Maureen said. The cute blonde was down-to-earth and usually accepting of others; but she had a short fuse where certain negative personality traits were concerned, and she no longer tried to control her agitation whenever Camille aired her bigoted side. Leslie couldn't blame her, but she didn't have Maureen's courage to let Camille know exactly what she thought about it. She'd talked with both Roarke and Tattoo about it; but, while sympathetic, they had told her she would have to decide for herself how she wanted to treat Camille.

"That's right," Myeko said now, shooting Maureen a quick, grateful smile. She then turned a disgusted look on Camille. "Keep it up, and you'll get yourself disinvited. And I'm not kidding."

Camille shrugged but said nothing, and Michiko promptly turned back to Myeko. "All right then. Let's hear who's on the list so far."

Myeko glanced around. "Well, all five of you, naturally. And probably Toki and Tommy, and Frida, and Kelly Harris, Janine Kurakawa, Michelle Stockwell, Steve Matsumoto..." She continued rattling off names, many of whom Leslie had never really met, while Michiko stared at her with wider and wider eyes. Finally Myeko ran out of names and shrugged. "I think that's it."

"That's half the school," Maureen said and laughed.

"Nah, just half the twelfth grade," Myeko replied and grinned back. "But now that I have some idea who to invite, I really oughta make a list and get some invitations to start sending out."

"Just hand them out at school," Lauren said. "You'll save a lot of postage that way, and they'll get there faster."

Leslie, who had been listening in interested silence, had a sudden idea. "Myeko," she said, slightly hesitant, "would you mind inviting someone who doesn't seem to get invited to stuff very often?"

Myeko focused on her curiously. "Like who?"

"I don't know...someone who maybe doesn't seem to have any friends, or seems really shy, or something. I was just thinking about when I first came here and was afraid I wouldn't be able to make friends because people would think I was trying to look better than they were when they heard that Mr. Roarke took me in. Michiko, you know what I mean. Who do you know who seems lonely?"

Michiko blinked. "That's a great idea, Leslie. Let me think." She stared into space. "Cori Mukulani?"

"Cori Mukulani?!" Lauren echoed and scowled. "She'd probably ruin the party. There's a reason people don't invite her anywhere."

"Lauren, that's not fair," Leslie protested. "Don't you mean that overweight girl who sits by herself at the end of our table in the cafeteria at school?"

"Leslie, believe me," Lauren said fervently, "I have nothing at all against fat people. On the other hand, I don't like mean people -- and Cori is mean. She's been in almost every one of my classes since first grade, and she's always been that way. Nobody likes her because she's mean, not because she's fat."

"She'd probably hog all the snacks anyway," Camille observed, almost matter- of-factly, and got a round of guilty snickers in response.

"Okay, not Cori, then," Myeko said and sighed. "But I really can't think of anyone else, at least nobody whose name I know."

"There's a news flash," Maureen remarked, grinning. "Myeko Sensei doesn't know the names of some of the kids in senior class. Maybe you should invite all the ones you don't know, so that you will." Then she seemed to have an idea and gnawed on her lower lip for a moment. "Wait a minute. Who's the Spanish-looking girl who never opens her mouth except to sing in choir? She has this really exotic name, but I can't remember it."

"I think I know who you mean," Michiko spoke up. "That would be Tabitha Zuma. She seems very shy -- always walks to classes alone from what I've seen. She shows up alone at choir anyway. I don't even know whether she lives on Coral Island or Fantasy Island."

"I think she'd love an invitation," Leslie said, trying to recall if she had seen Tabitha anywhere but unable to do so. "Put her on the list, Myeko."

"Sure thing," Myeko agreed. "You know, I don't think I have any classes with her. I'll give Tabitha's invitation to you, Michiko, and you can give it to her when you see her in choir."

"All right," Michiko said. "Now that we've settled the guest list, how about costumes?"

"Yeah, what's everybody planning to be this year?" Myeko asked eagerly.

"Not again!" Lauren complained teasingly. "Every year you throw a party and you ask us the same thing. How many times do we have to tell you, you're not supposed to know what we're gonna be?"

"Hey, it's worth a try." Myeko grinned.

"Frida'd probably tell you," Camille remarked. "She won't understand Halloween anyway, so she'd probably blab away to you."

Myeko stood up abruptly. "I gotta go. See you later, everybody." With that, she raced headlong across the clearing and was gone in only a few seconds.

"She should've gone out for the school track team," said Camille into the uncomfortable silence that followed. "Fantasy Island High would've beaten the pants off all the schools in Hawaii."

"Oops," said Maureen, glancing ostentatiously at her watch. "Gotta get back home and help Mom with another catering job. See you later on." She, too, left; Michiko murmured her own farewells and strode off across the clearing in Myeko's wake, leaving Leslie and Lauren with Camille.

Leslie cleared her throat. "It's getting kind of late," she said uneasily. "Talk to you later?"

"Sure," said Lauren. Camille shrugged. With a small sigh, Leslie turned and climbed the steps, crossed the airy veranda and let herself into the house. Just as she opened the door, she heard Lauren's voice, though not her words, low and angry-sounding. Hastily she slipped inside, not wanting to be caught in the middle of whatever Lauren was saying to her cousin.

Roarke looked up from his desk when Leslie came in. "So how are the Halloween-party plans coming?"

Leslie grinned in spite of herself, happy to have something else to focus on. "I think everything's falling into place. Myeko has all the food and decorations, and now she just has to write out her guest list and make out invitations. I think she's inviting half the school." Roarke and Tattoo, who stood beside the desk looking over some papers, both chuckled. "Now I need to think of some kind of costume. Could you maybe help me come up with some ideas? After last year, I'll need all the help I can get."

"I thought your Bride of Frankenstein looked really good," Tattoo said.

"It might have been, if Myeko hadn't been wearing the same costume -- and hers was ten times better, since she borrowed all kinds of makeup and costumes from the drama department at school." Leslie sighed. "I'd like to get as far away from that as possible, but everything I can think of has been done to death."

Tattoo's dark eyes began to sparkle with a sudden brainstorm. "How's this for a unique idea. You could go as the Invisible Woman."

Leslie stared at him. "That'd take a miracle."

"You don't need a miracle," Tattoo replied slyly. "Just the boss."

At that point Leslie got his meaning -- and so did Roarke, who eyed them both with mild suspicion. "I presume this is going to precipitate a request for a potion," he said, his own eyes twinkling.

"It'd be perfect," Leslie exclaimed. She remembered a guest by the name of Harriet Winkler, who had requested to be invisible in order to keep an eye on her unsuspecting boyfriend. Sometime not long before then, Tattoo had accidentally drunk an experimental version of the potion, leading to some memorable hijinks before the effects wore off by degrees, making him transparent for awhile. "You got all the quirks worked out of it after Tattoo drank it that time, and you let that lady use it for her fantasy. It worked perfectly! Please, could I do it? Nobody could possibly beat this one!"

"Don't forget," Roarke reminded her humorously, "the potion doesn't affect clothing. Are you sure that's what you want?"

"I want them to know I'm there," Leslie said. "And anyway, suppose I suddenly became visible and I didn't...well, you know..." She blushed vividly.

Roarke relented with a laugh. "Very well, Leslie, you may use the potion. It will take me a few days to prepare it, and you must follow my instructions exactly. If you do that, you should be fine."