Happy Halloween!
Aah, you would not believe how stressed I've been about getting this done, but I shouldn't complain because it's up and it's finished in time. It just about killed me, but it's up.
I really hope that you like it, it's a little bit different to the cutesy stories I normally do for seasonal one-shots because I wanted to mix things up a little bit and didn't have any fluffy-type ideas. So I'm sorry if you don't like it but I really enjoyed writing it for a change (despite being super duper stressed to get it finished).
Anyway, here you go!
On this particular Halloween night Butchy's only priority had been getting out of his house. Well, getting away from Lela really. He'd had to put up with her coughing and spluttering for days now so one night of peace was going to feel heavenly. But this night was going to be anything but heavenly…hellish would probably fit it a lot better.
"What the heck is that?" CheeChee demanded as soon as Butchy stepped back through the doorway to Struts' bedroom.
"What are you talkin' about?" Butchy asked, rather shocked at CheeChee's outburst.
"What are you wearing?!" she exclaimed.
"Giggles got it for me, we's is doin' a couple's costume," Butchy said, letting out a heavy sigh.
"What about our group costume though?"
"You three can still go as superheroes, I ain't stoppin' ya."
"Ugh, fine," CheeChee grumbled, stamping her foot and turning back to the mirror with a frown now firmly etched onto her face. "It won't be the same though," she added sulkily.
"I think it might have to go down to just you two," Lugnut piped up from across the room.
"Why?" CheeChee demanded.
"I think my costume's shrunk," Lugnut said, letting out a strained sigh as he tried to force the one-piece costume over his thighs.
"Or you've grown," Butchy snorted.
"Oh squeeze into it, Fatty," CheeChee snapped, huffing out an exasperated sigh as she tweaked her headpiece.
"Great advice, Chee. Hadn't thought of that one," Lugnut said sarcastically, giving one last grunt of effort as he tried to heave the fabric over his thighs.
And then an almighty ripping noise silenced the room. But it was soon filled again by Butchy's snickers when he caught sight of Lugnut: wide-eyed, sweating and paralysed with shock. "Nice one," he chuckled.
"Oh for cryin' out loud," CheeChee huffed.
"Did you just rip your costume?" Struts asked, walking out from behind her changing screen looking as if she couldn't quite believe what she'd just heard.
When Lugnut turned to reply to her though all the words that formed his answer fell apart in his mouth, along with his ability to comprehend anything going on around him.
Struts' black jumpsuit hugged every inch of her body tighter than any human possibly could and no matter how many gadgets were adorning it, nothing could pull everyone's (but mainly Lugnut's) attention away from the fact that she looked absolutely stunning in it.
"Jeez, Struts, you lookin' to impress…everyone?" Butchy said, his eyebrows practically raising through the roof when he saw her.
"No, I'm just wearing the costume I'm supposed to be," she said, giving Butchy a pointed look. "I still can't decide if I want to wear the wig or not though. Do you think my hair looks pretty enough like this?" she asked, motioning to the chestnut brown waves cascading over her shoulders.
"Uh huh," Lugnut eventually choked out, still completely overwhelmed by his girlfriend's appearance.
"Aww, thanks," Struts said, sending him an almost shy smile in reply. "But what are you gonna do about your costume?"
"Oh yeah," Lugnut said. All of a suffen he was brought out of his haze of marvelling at Struts' costume to the stinking reality of his own ripped one, which was hanging around the bottom of his thighs in tatters.
"You can't go without one," Struts added.
"Just put Butchy's on," CheeChee said as she layered on mascara.
"What? This one?" Butchy asked, motioning to the costume he was wearing with a puzzled expression on his face.
"No, you idiot. The one ya were supposed to be wearin': your Hulk one," CheeChee snapped, rolling her eyes at Butchy for him not understanding.
"It won't fit, will it?" Lugnut said.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Butchy cried in indignation.
"They're just purple pants, of course they'll fit," CheeChee said, rummaging around in the costume box to find said pants before tossing them to him.
"What about a shirt?"
"There isn't one," CheeChee replied flatly, going back to putting on her mascara. An intrigued smile tugged at Struts' lips upon hearing this news, but if any of the others saw it then they didn't say anything.
"What am I supposed to wear then?" Lugnut asked.
"A lot of green face paint," Struts said, swiping the pot from the array of costume makeup strewn across her dresser.
Lugnut let out a defeated sigh. There really was no other option. So, with another sigh and a glance as the purple fabric in his hands, he skulked out of the room to go and get changed.
"What else have yous gots in here then, Struts?" Butchy asked, leaning across to take a look in the big cardboard box of Halloween decorations and costume pieces.
"I don't know…stuff?" Struts said absent-mindedly, only half paying attention to what he was saying.
"I'm pretty sure my crystal ball from last year got dumped in there," CheeChee said. "That or it got dumped in the punch bowl at Big Momma's and was thrown out with the trash."
"Found it," Butchy grinned mischievously as he lifted it out of the box. "Think fast," he added, before flinging it at her.
"Butchy!" CheeChee shrieked, lunging off the dressing table's stool to save it from shattering on the floor.
"Why'd you keep that anyway?" he chuckled before ransacking the box again. "Yous plannin' to summon some spirits?"
"What? Like ghosts?" Struts snorted, touching up her lipstick in the mirror.
"I don't think CheeChee's interested in that kind of spirit," Lugnut snickered as he sauntered back through the doorway in his tattered purple pants.
"Hey, shut up, you," CheeChee snapped, scowling at Lugnut as Butchy let out another laugh at the remark.
"Speakin' of summonin' spirits," Butchy started as another mischievous smile graced his face. "Check this out."
CheeChee's faced drained a little bit of colour as she watched Butchy produce a Ouija board from the box. "You know those things freak me out," she muttered, not even wanting to look at it.
"Ooh, I forgot that was even in there," Struts said, grabbing a make-up sponge from her dressing table before dipping it into the green face paint and turning back to Lugnut whilst trying to hide the grin tugging at her lips again.
"Who is wes channelin' then?" Butchy chuckled, setting the board down on the bed in front of him.
"What are you talkin' about?" CheeChee asked.
"Well wes can't not use test it out."
"Are you insane?!"
"No, it's a bit of fun, Chee," Butchy replied. He couldn't understand what could possibly be unappealing about the idea.
"Those things are creepy!"
"Hey, what's Halloween without a little spookin'?" Butchy asked, a cocky smile replacing his mischievous one.
"Boring," Struts piped up with a cocky smile of her own.
"Right," Butchy said, shooting her a knowing look.
"You come and play with it then," CheeChee snapped at Struts.
"No, I'm fine where I am," Struts said, dabbing more green face paint onto Lugnut's torso with a grin plastered across her face.
CheeChee tried to get Struts' attention so that she could silently plead with her without Butchy seeing, but when she saw her giggling flirtatiously with Lugnut and trying to hide how much she was blushing she knew that it was no use.
"Come on, Chee. It's not like anythin' bad's gonna happen, is it?" Butchy said.
"Are you kiddin'?" CheeChee squeaked, but she still gingerly sat opposite him on the bed.
"Struts, you're into scary movies," Butchy started.
"Ugh, don't remind me," Lugnut mumbled.
"Yous knows any good ghosts for us to talk to?" Butchy continued, ignoring what Lugnut had said.
"Hmm," Struts said, momentarily getting distracted by gazing at Lugnut before remembering that she'd actually been asked a question. "I don't know, I watched one the other day about a girl who died called Angelica. Angelica Vanderbilt I think her full name was."
"Angelica Vanderbilt, huh?" Butchy said, playing with the piece that was supposed to move around the board. "Are you here, Angelica?" he asked aloud.
Nothing happened.
"See, nothin' happened," Butchy chuckled. But then he started pushing the piece of wood on the board to freak CheeChee out, which he succeeded in judging by the gasp that raced from her mouth. But when Butchy laughed at her, she frowned and started playing with the crystal ball in her lap again.
"That wasn't funny, this isn't a game," CheeChee grumbled.
"Yous is right, it's harmless fun," Butchy replied. "Take a joke, Chee."
"No."
"Come on, I'll try again. Angelica, babe, you there?" he chuckled; treating this like it was a joke. A cocksure smile twisted at his lips again as CheeChee just stared at him in horror.
"Butchy, do you really think this is a good idea?" she hissed, putting her hand over his on the tear-shaped piece of wood on the board to stop him from going any further.
But before Butchy could answer with another smartass comment, the wooden teardrop shot across the board, without either of the bikers forcing it, to firmly rest in front of the word 'NO'.
Butchy was left completely speechless, he'd treated this whole thing like a game but it definitely wasn't a game anymore. His eyes shot up to CheeChee's to see that all the colour had drained from her face; she looked petrified. He opened his mouth to say something, but it was like his brain was too scared to even formulate words. Before he could even take another breath, Struts' window burst open with a deafening crash, making Struts and Lugnut jump out of their skin.
"What was that?" Struts shrieked, clutching on to Lugnut for dear life as her eyes flew from the window to the two teens on her bed. But neither Butchy nor CheeChee could find it in themselves to answer her.
A sudden gust of icy cold wind ripped through the room, throwing aside everything in its path. All the makeup on Struts' dresser was blown onto the floor, her ceiling lamp swung wildly and a vase of flowers from her bedside table shattered next to Lugnut's foot. And with another almighty crash, Struts' bedroom door slammed shut. As soon as the door clicked into place the wind stopped, and there was complete silence. But it was quickly succeeded by the ceiling light raining sparks onto the floor, the crystal ball in CheeChee's hands glowing a blinding blue colour and then all the lights in the house cutting out.
All the bikers were too stunned to say anything at first, the thing that ended up breaking the silence was Butchy cursing under his breath.
"I know yous could say that was some sorta coincidence that the power went out when you were playin' with that thing, but I really don't think it is," Lugnut said to Butchy and CheeChee.
"Of course it wasn't a coincidence!" CheeChee practically screamed. "Did you see what just happened?!"
"Butchy, what did you do?" Struts asked, her eyes scanning over her destroyed room in dismay before moving back to the barely visible, but still very guilty biker boy in question.
"I didn't think it was gonna work," Butchy said quietly, still shaken up after the whole ordeal.
"Why would you even try it?!" CheeChee shouted. "I told you it was a bad idea!"
"Guys, I think wes got a bigger problem on our hands right now," Lugnut said.
"Yeah, we've got an angry ghost loose around town," Struts said.
"How d'ya know she's angry?" Butchy asked.
"Did you not see what she just did?!" CheeChee shouted at him.
"I mean, she wasn't exactly a nice ghost to begin with but I don't think that callin' her 'babe' was the best idea," Struts snapped.
"Hey, yous is the one that told me about her!" Butchy said, trying to shift some of the blame off him.
"I didn't tell you to piss her off though, did I?!" Struts shouted.
"Look, we can't just forget about this and hope for the best, can we?" Lugnut said.
"Well what are ya suggestin' we do then?" CheeChee asked, giving him a sceptical look.
"We go get help," Lugnut said simply. He may have sounded confident but he was wearing the same uneasy expression as the other three. Boy had they landed themselves in trouble now.
"Lela, did you find more medicine?" Tanner called, setting his pumpkin carving knife down. He made a move to get up from the couch to go in search of his girlfriend, but quickly realised it was in vain when he saw Lela trudging back into the living room with the medicine bottle in her hand.
"Yep," she croaked, wincing since talking only aggravated her throat more.
As much as Lela loved going to the yearly Halloween parties at Big Momma's, this year (because Butchy had dragged her to the doctor's office the day before) she was cooped up at home feeling sorry for herself because she had tonsillitis. It could be a lot worse for her though, Tanner could be at the party instead of sat on her couch carving pumpkins with her just so that she had some company.
"Are you allowed to have any more yet?" Tanner asked, reaching for the slip of paper that had the instructions for when Lela could take her various medications.
"No," Lela sighed as she glumly went to go and sit next to Tanner again. She didn't need to check it anymore; she'd been so desperate for some pain relief so many times that she pretty much knew it off by heart. As she struggled against the pain to swallow once again she felt fresh tears prick her eyes.
Tanner leant back and gently pulled her head to his chest as he hugged her for what felt like the five hundredth time that day. "Ssh, it's ok," he said quietly as he heard her let out a tiny snivelling sob. "I know it hurts but don't worry, we'll get you better before you know it."
"How?"
"A lot of TLC," Tanner chuckled, pressing a kiss to her forehead.
"Stop, I don't want you getting ill too," Lela whined, weakly making an attempt to bat Tanner away.
"I'd voluntarily give myself the plague if it would make you feel better," Tanner said, mindlessly playing with one of Lela's curls as he spoke. "I hate seeing you like this."
"You can go if you want," Lela said quietly.
"You can't get rid of me that easily, I'm not going anywhere," Tanner said with a smile, kissing her again. But they were soon broken apart by the sound of the doorbell resonating through the house. "Did you invite someone over?" Tanner asked, shooting Lela a puzzled look.
Lela shook her head, sharing Tanner's puzzled look as she slowly stood up from her couch. She left Tanner sitting there with the two partially carved pumpkins and the Halloween movie marathon playing on the TV and stepped out into the hallway. She cautiously unlocked to door but her unease disappeared the instant she saw who was standing behind it.
"Trick or treat!" Mack joked, letting out an airy laugh as soon as she'd said it.
But the only greeting she got from Brady was an almighty sneeze and then a weak wave.
"Is that Mack?" Tanner called from the living room, obviously recognising her voice. But his comment was quickly followed by a shriek. Tanner stumbled out into the hallway looking rather embarrassed and unsuccessfully tried to play it off cool by saying, "That wasn't me, that was someone in the movie."
"Yeah, sure," Mack said sarcastically, unable to stop herself from rolling her eyes at him and then adding, "Nice outfit."
"I'm Peter Pan," Tanner replied, crossing his arms and mimicking Mack's mocking smile. "And Lela's Wendy," he said, cocking his head in her direction. "Sort of," he added, quickly glancing down at Lela's blue nightgown and loosely curled hair. i.e. Her weak attempt at a costume that she could sit around in bed in.
"Are you ready to go then?" Mack asked, toying with the sleeve of her white dress.
"Go where?" Tanner asked.
"The Halloween party," she said as if it was obvious.
"Oh…"
"What?" Mack asked.
"We're not going," Tanner replied, awkwardly watching Mack and Brady's faces fall. But Brady's face soon contorted into another one before he let out another loud sneeze.
"You're sick too, huh?" Lela croaked before descending into a coughing fit.
Brady nodded. "But we didn't want to miss the…party," he said, interrupting himself by sneezing again.
"I'm sorry, guys," Tanner said.
"Well we shouldn't waste your visit," Lela said.
"What do you mean?" Mack asked.
"Let's go out and do something," Lela replied.
"No, Lela, you need to rest," Tanner tried.
"I'm fine; I just need to get out of the house for a bit."
"Are we going to the party then?" Mack asked, secretly hoping that the answer would be 'yes' so that her and Brady's costumes wouldn't be wasted.
"Lela, I really think you should get some rest," Tanner tried again.
"Come on, we're going for a walk," Lela said, grabbing her coat from the rack by the door with one hand and Tanner's arm with the other.
"Where?" Tanner asked.
"I don't know, anywhere with fresh air," Lela said, marching off down the driveway with a very shocked confused Tanner in tow.
"Alright then," Mack said slowly, just as puzzled by Lela's actions as Tanner seemed to be.
"Are we following them or can we just go home?" Brady sniffed, reaching for another tissue from his pocket. As much as he loved Wet Side Story, the only place that he wanted to be right now was at home in his bed with a bowl of his mom's chicken soup in his hands, so he was secretly hoping that Mack would choose the second option.
"Following them of course," Mack said, shooting Brady a cheeky smile before taking his hand in hers and setting off to follow Lela and Tanner.
Brady let out a defeated sigh and trumpeted out another sneeze, making Mack flinch beside him.
"Stop sneezing," she chuckled, lightly shoving him with her shoulder as she picked up her pace a little.
"I can't help it!" Brady whined, letting Mack drag him along until they caught up with Lela and Tanner and set off on their journey.
Butchy, CheeChee, Struts and Lugnut all stumbled into Big Momma's way after it started but scanned the mass of costumed teens to find their friends.
Butchy was the first one to spot someone though. As soon as he caught sight of some blonde hair and white fringe he knew exactly who it was and immediately started pushing the array of surfers and bikers aside to get to her. "Giggles," he said breathlessly, grabbing her arm and spinning her to face him as he heard CheeChee, Struts and Lugnut running up behind him.
"Hey, I was wondering when my little caveman was going to get here," Giggles well…giggled as she ruffled Butchy's hair and smiled at his Fred Flintstone costume. "I was starting to look ridiculous dressed like this by myself."
"You? Ridiculous? Never," Seacat chimed in sarcastically, accidentally eavesdropping on his friend's conversation.
"G, wes needs your help," Butchy said, a strange, urgent tone in his voice.
"With what?" Giggles asked, her eyes scanning over the group of bikers and seeing nothing but panic-stricken faces. "What happened to you lot? You look like you've seen a ghost," she chuckled.
"Well, sorta," Struts awkwardly admitted.
"Wait, what?" Seacat said, not even pretending not to be listening anymore.
"Butchy started messin' with one of them freaky board things in Struts' house and now there's a ghost on the loose!" CheeChee hissed, trying to keep her voice down so that she didn't cause any more hysteria than was necessary.
"And she's seriously pissed off," Lugnut added.
"She?" Seacat chuckled, misjudging the situation completely.
"Yes, she," CheeChee hissed, whacking Seacat's arm.
"Hey," Seacat yelped, pulling his arm in to his chest.
"Look, G, I'm really worried," Butchy said quietly, placing his hands on Giggles' upper arms so that she was looking him directly in the eye. "This isn't a joke; I don't know what we can do."
"Well I don't know either, don't look at me," Giggles said. She didn't want to brush Butchy off for being ridiculous about nothing, because she knew he'd get in a temper, but she also didn't want to get too involved with it because she didn't want to look extremely gullible if it was a prank, which the bikers for notorious for at Halloween.
"Giggles," Butchy tried again, almost desperately now.
"Butchy, we need help. That's what we came here for, isn't it?" Struts stepped in, grabbing him by the shoulders and trying to shake him back into reality so he could start thinking logically again. He turned to mush when he saw Giggles at the best of times so if this carried on then they'd get nowhere.
"Help for what?" Seacat asked.
"To get the freakin' ghost out of my house!" Struts exclaimed, forcefully letting go of Butchy and turning on Seacat, who instinctively took a small step back. Struts didn't seem like she was in the calmest of moods, not that she ever was really.
"Struts, relax," Lugnut said, laying a hand on her shoulder. Seacat and Giggles both had to try to stifle their laughs when they saw him though. Because of the whole ghost incident, Struts hadn't gotten the chance to finish covering him in the green fact paint; she'd left the job half done. So overall, with the shaken expression and blotchy green paint job, Lugnut looked rather comical.
"We need to send someone in there to get rid of it," she said after taking a deep breath to try to calm down again. But after everything that had just happened in her bedroom, she didn't know if she would ever be able to relax again.
"Well wes ain't sendin' in nobody we care about," Butchy said, protectively stepping in front of Giggles.
"Well who are we sendin' in then? You told us to come here for help," Struts snapped.
"I've got some people in mind," Butchy said, looking around to see if he could spot them amongst the crowds of dancing teens.
"Who?" Struts asked.
"Who don't we care about?" CheeChee thought aloud. Both biker girls, along with Giggles, Seacat and Lugnut, looked extremely puzzled by Butchy's latest comment. But after pushing past a few more teens, they soon saw exactly who he was talking about.
"Yous two," Butchy called out to them, snatching their attention away from the stupid dance they were doing with a few other surfers that were following whatever mindless instructions the song from the jukebox was blaring out. "We need your help."
"Nice costume," Coral laughed when she caught sight of Butchy. "You're not really helping me stop this whole 'Neanderthal' thing, are you?"
"Are you serious right now?" Seacat said when he saw who Butchy was targeting. "These are the people we 'don't like'?"
"You don't what now?" Rascal said, both surfers looking horrified at what had been said.
"Like you," Butchy snapped, trying to get to the point.
"What have we done this time?" Coral asked, appalled at what she was hearing from one of her supposed 'friends'.
"Nothin', we just need you to help us," Butchy said.
"No, not when you've just been rude to us," Coral said brusquely, frowning at him as starting to turn away.
"Coral, don't start being difficult," Butchy barked, grabbing her arm and turning her back to face him.
"Oh you two are not starting another argument," Struts said, quickly being riled up at the concept of them both brainlessly screaming at each other again. "We've got a way bigger problem here than your petty fights."
"Guys, please," Lugnut said to Coral and Rascal, trying to dissolve some of the tension that was quickly building up between the teens. "We really do need your help."
"With what?" Rascal asked sceptically.
"Butchy messed around with a Ouija board and summoned a ghost in Struts' house," CheeChee explained hurriedly.
"And now we need you to go and get rid of it," Lugnut added.
Coral and Rascal turned to look at each other, both equally doubtful that this wasn't just one big wind-up. But with nothing more than a look they were able to communicate a joined decision.
"Ok, we'll do it," Rascal sighed.
"Show us the ghost," Coral snorted.
"Wait, seriously?" Struts said. She couldn't believe that they were able to stay so relaxed while accepting such a task. But then again, she didn't realise that they thought that the bikers were pranking them.
"Yeah," Rascal said, a small, amused, almost smirk-like grin tugging at the corner of his lip. He didn't see why she should be so shocked that they had agreed to help her after she'd asked them to.
"Alright then," CheeChee said, still a little stunned.
"We'll meet you back here in five," Coral chirped, taking Rascal's arm and proceeding to lead him through the group of bikers. "Try not to miss us too much," she said sarcastically to Butchy, almost in a spiteful way as she flashed him a false smile, which he just returned with a stony frown.
"I can't believe they agreed to that," CheeChee said, staring after the two teens in amazement.
"Butchy, why did you do that?" Giggles asked quietly.
"Do what?" Butchy asked. He'd only been half-listening to what she'd said; too busy silently fuming about Coral's snide remark.
"Single them out to go and do whatever it is you're going on about now," Giggles explained, letting out an exasperated sigh at the end.
"Giggles, you didn't see what that ghost did. I ain't lettin' you, or anyone I actually care about anywhere near that house until it's gone," Butchy said.
Giggles just stood looking at him for a few seconds, her brows furrowed and lips forming a small frown. "Wait," she started slowly, the truth dawning on her. "You're not joking, are you?"
"'Course I'm not jokin'!" Butchy hissed. "Why would I be joking?!"
"So there really is a ghost in Struts' house?"
"Yeah! And it's pissed off!"
"And you're really going to make Rascal and Coral go in there with it?!"
"Look, they're the ones that agreed to it."
"They thought you were joking! We all did!" Giggles cried.
"That's not my problem."
"Butchy, they only made the decision to go along with it because they thought that it would make them seem more appealing to you guys," Giggles said quietly, knowing her friends well enough to know that the only reason they'd be doing this was to try to improve their relationships with the bikers.
"Yeah, well Coral's great at making bad decisions, isn't she?" Butchy said bitterly.
Five minutes later, as promised, Coral and Rascal showed up to greet the four bikers, Seacat and Giggles, who were all stood out on the porch of Big Momma's waiting for them. But they looked significantly different to how they had been five minutes prior. And they seemed to have picked up a few friends on the way too.
In place of their Halloween costumes were two make-shift 'ghostbusting' uniforms. Rascal had his khaki short-sleeved shirt hung open over a white t-shirt and his blue jeans but Coral had chosen a khaki playsuit (very traditional to her signature style) with the long shirt sleeves rolled up to just above her elbows and had more or less managed to tame her mass of curls into two plaits. They both also had clunky vacuum cleaners slung over their backs and were lazily swinging the detachable nozzles beside them as they strolled up to greet their friends.
Hidden smoke machines spewed white smoke across the sand and music struck up to accompany their entrance. If they were going to actually go through with this and face the humiliation they thought they would once it was revealed that it was a prank like they thought it was, at least they could have a little fun beforehand.
"What are you doing?" Lugnut asked them as they sauntered towards him.
But he didn't really get a reply from either of them; Coral just turned to him, giggled and then started pretending that she was stalking some kind of ghost prey.
Coral: "If there's something strange in your neighbourhood
Who you gonna call?"
Surfers: "Ghostbusters!"
Yes, Rascal and Coral had managed to recruit a heap of their friends to join in with their little musical entrance by hollering out whenever their cue came and then falling about laughing.
Rascal: "If there's something weird and it don't look good
Who you gonna call?"
Surfers: "Ghostbusters"
But then the dance to the chorus came in, naturally led by Coral and Rascal themselves, and the others hated to admit it but they actually looked really cool. They were pulling off the routine seamlessly, but then again that's what they were 'born' to do. That was their rule in the movie after all, they were dancers there to make the leads look goo.
Coral & Rascal: "I ain't afraid of no ghost, woah, I ain't afraid of no ghost"
Rascal: "No I ain't afraid"
"What the heck are those?" CheeChee asked, interrupting their song to interrogate them about the vacuum cleaners, which Rascal was coincidentally pointing at her.
"These are what they used in that movie we watched at Mack and Brady's, aren't they?" Rascal asked with a chuckle.
"How are they going to be of any use to you?" Struts snapped, not pleased that the two surfers were treating this like a joke. Little did she know, that's what they thought it was.
"What? You think we can't handle a ghost?" Coral asked, flashing the group of teens a grin.
"I'd like to see you try," Butchy muttered.
"Butchy, at least try to be nice," Giggles said.
"Look, we're just trying to make tonight a little more fun for you. You seem a little tense," Rascal cut in.
"I wonder why," Struts barked, glaring at him for even thinking about saying what he had, prompting Rascal to hold his hands up in defense.
"Well I think it's nice," Giggles chirped, trying to be supportive, which Rascal and Coral thanked her for with a smile.
"Yeah, lighten up," Seacat smirked, lightly bumping CheeChee's shoulder.
But she just shot him a warning look and dug her elbow into his ribs. "Joking about this ain't gonna help anythin', is it?" she hissed.
"Well, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em," Seacat called across to Giggles before winking at her and going over to join the group of dancers with Coral and Rascal.
"Giggles," Struts tried, but the blonde had already scurried over to join her best friends as an excited grin spread across her face. No sooner had she reached Rascal, she grabbed the nozzle of his vacuum cleaner and started wielding it at the bikers, giggling the whole time.
Giggles: "If you're seeing things running through your head
Who you gonna call?"
Surfers: "Ghostbusters!"
And then Seacat decided to join in as well, with an equally amused smile as before.
Seacat: "An invisible man sleeping in your bed"
Rascal: "Who you gonna call?"
"Coral?" Seacat cut jokingly, shooting his friend a mischievous smile. But the other surfers were soon to correct him before Giggles and Seacat joined in with the dance that went along with the chorus.
Surfers: "Ghostbusters!"
Seacat, Giggles, Coral & Rascal: "I ain't afraid of no ghost no, woah, I ain't afraid of no ghost"
Rascal: "No I ain't afraid"
Coral & Rascal: "If you've had a dose of a freaky ghost, baby"
Rascal: "You'd better call"
Surfers: "Ghostbusters!"
"Come on then, show us the ghost," Coral said, practically beaming at the four agitated bikers.
"Fine," Struts mumbled, tightly crossing her arms over her chest as she, Lugnut, CheeChee and Butchy led the way back to her house. Of course Rascal, Coral, Seacat and Giggles followed, but that didn't mean that they stopped dancing whilst doing so.
Coral: "Woah ooh yeah"
Rascal: "No I ain't afraid of no ghost, ooh"
Coral: "No, no, no"
Coral & Rascal: "Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah"
Rascal: "Don't get caught alone, no, no"
"Alright, it's all yours," Struts said to them, coming to a halt at the mouth of her driveway. She kept playing with her hands and shifting from foot to foot in an attempt to distract herself, but it wasn't really working. And her anxiety wasn't really helped when Rascal sauntered up, lent on her shoulder and flashed her a smile, trying to lighten the mood once again by singing. But like Struts' distractions, it didn't really work.
Rascal: "When it comes to your door, unless it just wants some more"
I think you'd better call"
Seacat, Giggles & Coral: "Ghostbusters!"
"Look, just get it over with!" Struts snapped, practically shoving them towards her front door.
"Ok, wish us luck!" Coral joked, giving her friends a quick wave before she entered the house with Rascal.
They were gone a mere ten seconds before Struts started to speak again. "Do you think they'll be alright in there?" she asked, looking genuinely terrified for her friends' wellbeing.
"Relax, what do you think's gonna happen to them?" Seacat said, easily brushing off any of Struts' concerns.
But before Struts could answer, she was cut off by a sort of music scream echoing from her house, which made all four bikers look at each other in horror.
Coral & Rascal: "Aaah!"
Rascal: "I ain't afraid of no – woah, woah, woah, oh"
But the bikers were soon left looking sheepish when Coral and Rascal opened up the front door again with cheeky grins and laughs spilling from their mouths.
Coral & Rascal: "I ain't afraid of no ghost"
"Stop messin' around! Just get on with it!" Struts shouted at the two surfers giggling in her front doorway.
"Alright, alright, we'll go look for something," Coral said, leading the way back into the house with Rascal hot on her heels. What they didn't realise though was that the door closed behind them on its own though...
Mack and Brady had no idea how Lela had managed to persuade them all to take a detour through a graveyard so that they could 'experience at least some of the Halloween spirit', but that's what was currently happening.
"You know, I love spending time with Lela and Tanner, I really do," Brady started, sniffling as he stepped over another fallen tree branch. "But all I really want to do now is go home."
"Really? I thought coming to see them would cheer you up," Mack said, stopping in her tracks and turning to him wearing look of clear concern. "That's why I brought you."
"Is that why you made us buy an extra costume each too?" Brady just chuckled in response.
"Well excuse me for not wanting to come to Wet Side Story to see Lela and Tanner dressed as Lela and Tanner," Mack said.
"Is that because it would be weird or because Lela would be so excited she'd just scream for five minutes straight?"
"Both," Mack chuckled as Brady let out yet another sneeze. "Look, if you really do want to go back home we can," she said, worriedly glancing across at him as she waded her way through the boggy, muddy grass between the graves.
"No way, who else can say that they've spent Halloween night in a graveyard with two movie characters from the 1960s," Brady said with a grin. "I think we definitely deserve some sort of award for this," he added, making Mack let out a laugh as he tripped and then almost hit his head on a low hanging tree branch.
"I love you," she chuckled.
"I know," Brady said, shooting Mack a smirk as her mouth dropped open into an excited beam.
"Hey, look at you getting in character!" she said, playfully batting his arm.
"Well how could I not say that when you're dressed like Princess Leia?" Brady chuckled.
"I don't know why we decided to dress like Han and Leia, no one here knows who the heck we are," Mack said.
"Well Lela and Tanner and the others do, we must have shown them at least one Star Wars movie when they stayed with us, they were there long enough."
"Yeah, you're right," Mack said, letting out another little laugh. "How long do you think we're going to be walking around like this for?" she then asked after a short pause.
"I don't know, but Lela doesn't look like she's stopping any time soon, does she?" Brady said.
Tanner was trying his best to keep up with Lela, but she was taking such big strides that he was almost having to jog to stay beside her. She must really have felt cooped up in her house because now she was walking like she was never turning back.
As Mack watched the couple ahead of them though she noticed something a little odd about one of the graves that they were passing. It looked like there was something on it that was glowing, glowing blue. "Brady," she said quietly, nervously holding his arm.
"What?" he asked, following Mack's line of eyesight to try to see what had made her change her demeanor so suddenly.
But when the earth in front of the partially glowing gravestone stared to move and form a little mound Mack's grip instinctively tightened.
"Please tell me you're seeing that too," Brady said, his voice unintentionally higher than normal.
And then when a pale, greenish hand splattered in blood reached out from the ground in front of the gravestone Mack gripped Brady's arm so hard it almost crumbled between her fingers.
"Oh my god," Mack whispered, struggling to find any words that dared to come out of her mouth.
"What do we do?" Brady hissed.
"This has to be fake, or a part of the movie," Mack babbled, trying to rack her brain for a logical explanation to this. "There must have been some sort of Wet Side Story Halloween spin-off, right?"
"Why would they make a Halloween-" Brady started, giving a Mack that told her she was being absolutely ridiculous.
"Well you try to explain this!" Mack cried.
But Brady never got the chance to because their panicking had finally managed to make Lela and Tanner stop marching ahead.
"What's wrong?" Tanner called as Lela tipped her head to the side and stared at them.
Mack and Brady couldn't focus on replying because more and more of the body belonging to the greenish hand was pushing its way through the soil of the grave that was dangerously close to where an unaware Lela and Tanner were stood. And when a girl's head with matted dark brown hair, decaying skin but piercing blue eyes finally broke through the surface Mack and Brady totally lost it.
"Guys!" Mack screamed as Brady grabbed her hand and started backing away.
Lela and Tanner glanced down to where Mack was looking and to their horror discovered the girl, who appeared to be both dead and alive at once, climbing out of her own grave.
It got to the point where they didn't know whos screams were louder, theirs or the girl's. She'd tried to grab at Lela's coat but when Lela shrieked and snatched it out of her reach the girl let out the most ear-splitting scream that the four teens had ever heard, it was like she was trying to melt their ear drums.
"What do we do?!" Lela cried, trying to be heard over the girl's horrific wailing.
The second that the girl looked like she was actually about to stand up though, they all knew exactly what to do: run. They ran and ran and ran, but so did the girl. No matter how much they tried, they never seemed like they could shake her off their tails.
"How is she this fast?" Brady panted. "Isn't she supposed to be dead?" But he shouldn't have said that, because that only made the girl's screams louder.
Only three sounds filled their heads as they ran: the pounding of their feet on the ground, the blood thumping in their ears and the girl's shrieks that seemed to bury themselves into their brains, there was no way to escape them. And there was no way to escape her. At least that's what they thought. What they didn't know was that their friends were steadily working on a way to help them escape because the name on the grave that the girl had crawled out of just happened to be: Angelica Vanderbilt.
"What exactly are they expecting us to find?" Coral asked as she half-heartedly sifted through a pile of magazines.
"A ghost, apparently," Rascal sighed in a bored tone, opening a wardrobe door before batting it shut a few seconds later.
"Where they really this desperate to get us away from that party?" Coral asked, presuming that that was the reason that they had been singled out to go and walk around Struts' house for half an hour.
"It seems like it, doesn't it?" Rascal replied.
"I was enjoying myself as well, for a change," Coral mumbled, rummaging around in a drawer in a bid to kill time.
Rascal just mumbled in agreement before going to check the en suite bathroom, but with Coral being Coral, the fact that he was out of the room didn't stop her from talking.
"I'm sort of glad we changed out of our costumes though," she thought aloud.
"Why? Isn't dressing like a Greek goddess right for imaginary ghost hunting?" Rascal called from the bathroom, his tone clearly sarcastic.
"No, it wasn't even right for the party, I didn't want to wear it," Coral mumbled, slamming the drawer shut.
"Why not?" Rascal asked.
"I just didn't like it," she sighed.
"Why did you wear it then?"
"I thought that guys would like it," she admitted before forcing out a self-pitying chuckle. "God, how much more desperate can I get?"
"Hey, join the club. I only wore my costume because Kiki said it made me look more 'appealing'," Rascal said with an equally self-deprecating tone as he walked back into the bedroom.
"And did you want to look more appealing?" Coral asked.
"Yeah," Rascal admitted after a short pause. "To certain people."
"And would those 'certain people' happen to be girls?"
"Yeah," he admitted again. But what he didn't admit that it was 'girls', it was just one girl. One girl he had been spending the last half an hour with...
"Don't worry, we can be desperate and single together," Coral said, attempting a stab at humour as she sat down on the bed in defeat.
"What a fun offer," Rascal said sarcastically.
"You know what's really ironic?" Coral started as she watched Rascal start to check the chest of drawers she was supposed to have checked herself.
"What?"
"The fact that I was dressed up as Aphrodite but I couldn't get a guy to love me no matter how hard I tried," she snorted, trying to make it sound jokey but ending up just sounding quite sad.
"Well I dressed up as Robin Hood: the king of thieves, but I couldn't steal a girl's heart if I was the last guy on earth," Rascal said, perfectly matching her tone without even trying. A silence then quickly fell over the pair as they gradually got more and more lost in their thoughts, but eventually Rascal managed to get some sort of conversation back on track. "Are we all done in here then?" he asked.
"Yeah, I think so," Coral said, lazily pushing herself off the bed and following Rascal out the door. "You know," she started as they slowly strolled down the hallway. "I don't think my costume was the problem, I think it's just me," she said, finding herself lightly laughing again out of awkwardness.
"What are you talking about? You looked gorgeous," Rascal blurted, blushing almost immediately after he'd spoke. He just prayed that Coral didn't notice it, which she thankfully didn't. He also had to force himself not to carry on by saying: 'You always do' for the fear that he would never be able to recover from the embarrassment, no matter how true he thought it was.
"Aww, thanks Rascal," Coral smiled, a little taken aback but still grateful. She didn't realise how much Rascal was beating himself up about slipping up and saying that though because she'd just thought that it had been platonic. But she wasn't about to let him say that without returning the notion. "And you looked very handsome."
"Thanks," Rascal mumbled. But his heart sank in his chest because he knew that Coral didn't mean that, she was just trying to be nice. No matter how he felt about her, he couldn't help but try to keep things friendly because he knew that Coral saw their relationship as nothing more than that. And as much as that hurt him (which he desperately tried to ignore) he couldn't really do a great deal about that.
As he rounded the corner, leaving Coral a few paces behind as she stopped to check her reflection in a hanging mirror (she's Tanner's twin sister, do you really think that she'd be able to resist stopping to look at herself if the opportunity presented itself?), he stopped dead in his tracks. In front of him stood, well hovered, a glowing, blue, transparent figure of a young woman with long hair. The second he laid eyes on her it felt like his entire body forgot how to function and although all windows around him were closed, an icy breeze seemed to fill the air.
"Coral," he said quietly, not daring to move.
"What?" she asked, unaware of the spirit at the other end of the hallway. But once she had strolled up to stand beside him he could see out of the corner of his eye that she instantly paled at the sight of the ghost.
She gripped onto Rascal's arm without even thinking, which landed him another thing to worry about. He didn't know what was worse, the fact that he was actually face to face with a ghost or the fact that as soon as Coral's hand touched his arm about a million hyperactive butterflies were released into his stomach.
But the worst thing actually happened to be that as soon as the ghost girl saw the pair she hurled a shard of glass, from the vase that smashed in Struts' bedroom, at their heads. It lodged in the wall directly between their heads and shot a overwhelming sense of fear through their bodies.
"Rascal," Coral whispered, sounding on the verge of tears.
He turned to look at her and he honestly didn't think that he'd ever seen anyone look so terrified in his life. And no matter how scared he was, he was going to try to hide it for her sake. But that wasn't terribly easy when the ghost girl glared at them and started drifting towards them. "Run," he urged her, grabbing her hand and making a break for the stairs.
But she caught up with them in seconds and just before they reached the first step she passed straight through them. It was as if they'd just stepped through a tunnel of liquid nitrogen. For a moment it felt like their hearts had stopped, but as soon as Rascal dared a glance at Coral (and saw how close she was to breaking down in sobs again) he knew he had to push on.
"Keep going," he said, gripping her hand a little bit tighter.
Before they knew it, they'd burst through the front door and were finally out of the house. They were is such a hurry to get away from it though that they ended up tripping on the porch stairs and tumbled to a halt a few feet away from a now very panicked group of teens.
"What happened?!" Giggles cried as she saw how shaken her two friends looked.
"We didn't realise that there was an actual ghost in there!" Coral cried, violently trembling as she slowly got back to her feet.
"Well what did you think that you were going in there for?!" Struts shouted back.
"Wait, there's a ghost in there?" Seacat asked, suddenly coming to the realisation that all of this was actually happening.
"Yes!" CheeChee yelled, looking at her boyfriend like he was an utter idiot.
"Did you get rid of it?" Lugnut asked Coral and Rascal, who looked in no fit state to speak let alone take on anything remotely paranormal.
Rascal tried his best to answer but he couldn't really find anything to say. But what was drawing Giggles' attention most was the subtle blue glow that seemed to be coating the pair of surfers in front of her.
"Guys, what happened to you?" she asked, staring at them in horror.
For the first time since they stumbled out of the house, Rascal and Coral caught a glimpse of themselves. As soon as they saw the odd blue hue of their skin, clothes and hair they started panicking all over again.
"She - she chased us - and -" Rascal stuttered as Coral started hyperventilating and fighting back more petrified tears.
"Wait so she's like an actual thing?" Lugnut asked, having thought that the ghost was just kind of like a presence.
"Of course she is! She tried to kill us!" Coral cried.
"Woah, woah, woah, what?" Seacat said, sharing the same shocked expressions as the other teens.
"She threw some glass at our heads," Rascal explained rather shakily.
"Oh my god, she's out to kill us all," Struts said, the colour draining from her face as she thought of the enraged ghost girl in her house.
And as if on cue, the front door of Struts' house burst open and the glowing blue figure was staring down the eight teens with the same menacing glare she gave Coral and Rascal in the house.
"Oh my-" Giggles started. Her blood ran cold at the mere sight of her; this all just became very, very real.
"What do we do?!" Struts cried.
"I don't know," Butchy said, gripping onto Giggles' hand.
"Well we have to do something!" Struts shouted back.
Before a decision could be made though, Angelica shot towards them, sending the friends running for their lives. They bolted out of the driveway and scattered along the road, trying in any way that they could to get away from the spirit that wanted some sort of revenge.
"Butchy, what do we do?!" Giggles cried, her expression that of pure terror as she looked at him.
"I don't know," Butchy admitted again, feeling completely and utterly helpless as he gave Giggles' hand another reassuring squeeze. His stomach was twisting itself in knots as he stood there, the longer he hesitated, the angrier Angelica became.
Without realising it, the teens had more or less formed a sort of circle around the ghost girl, who now hovered a few inches off the ground and slowly spun around, sizing each teen up as she did so. It seemed like she was choosing her prey like a lioness picked her meal, but it was all an act because she knew exactly who she was targeting: a cocky teen dressed like a caveman.
As the surfers and bikers scrambled for cover, Angelica's gaze locked on Butchy. She stayed deathly still, her eyes seemingly staring through his eyes before opening her mouth and letting out the same ear-splitting shriek that came from the zombie girl that had been chasing Mack, Brady, Lela and Tanner all the way home.
Speaking of Mack, Brady, Lela and Tanner, just seconds before the scream spewed out of Angelica's mouth the four of them came hurtling around the street corner. They all skidded to a halt as soon as they saw the scene unfolding before them though, they were utterly gobsmacked.
"Butchy, what's going on?!" Lela cried, her voice scratchy as it fought to get out of her inflamed throat.
"Lela, why aren't you at home?" Butchy asked, dropping Giggles' hand before starting to move over to his little sister. And is concern only intensified when he saw how scared she looked.
That's when Angelica chose to let out her scream, so deafening that the teens couldn't do anything but press their hands to their ears. Her eyes still seemed to be fixed on Butchy, but she now had a different sort of target. Instead of getting revenge directly through him, she'd go through those he loved. And just from the way he looked at her, she knew exactly who to go for.
Giggles found herself inching towards Seacat, Coral and Rascal, who seemed to be on the opposite side of the ghost girl to the bikers and the four newcomers. She could barely bring herself to move but standing in front of the ghost by herself was something she just couldn't even begin to comprehend. But now she found that as she slowly shuffled towards her friends Angelica's eyes seemed to be following her every move. Giggles' chest tightened and it felt like her heart didn't have enough space to work properly, but she managed to catch Seacat's eye so he could meet her half way.
But just before Seacat could get to her, the low rumble of a car engine started to replace the girl's screams. All the teens cautiously started looking for the source of the noise, but to their horror soon discovered it was from a driverless car with blindingly blue headlights that was pulling out of a nearby driveway.
"What's she doing?" Struts asked. Panic rose in her chest like an elevator that had no intentions of ever going back down as she watched the spirit work.
With a slow, controlled hand signal, the car reversed onto the road and turned to face the teens. It revved its engine again, louder this time, and flashed its lights an even brighter blue.
Blue. CheeChee had seen that same blue earlier, she was sure of it. She just couldn't quite pinpoint where.
Before the teens knew what was happening though, Angelica's lips curled into a malicious grin and flicked her hand. The car accelerated past a very shocked Struts and Lugnut, who stumbled back onto the pavement, where Butchy, Lela, Tanner, Mack and Brady were all stood. But it only gained speed as it made a beeline for the surfers, more specifically: Giggles.
"What's she doing?!" Struts screamed this time, practically hysterical as she realised all too late what the tormented ghost was doing.
The car swerved violently off the road and made contact with a low wall, which its left wheels went up, before it tried to accelerate again, which is when it lost all control.
CheeChee seemed to be watching the scene in slow motion. The screams, shouts and scrapings of metal were no match for the ringing in her ears. But all she could focus on were those blue headlights. Their colour filled her brain. The only other time she'd seen that colour was earli- Suddenly it came to her and she knew exactly what she had to do. She was already partly stood in Struts' driveway; all she had to do know was get back into the house.
CheeChee had already turned to run when the car flipped over, so she didn't see the chaos that ensued. It skidded along the road on its roof, going directly for the four surfers that stood in its path. Adrenaline took over their entire bodies when the vehicle crashed towards them but when they realised that running wasn't an option because of the wall blocking the end of the road, they had no choice but to dive out of its way. Coral and Rascal thudded and rolled to a halt a few feet away from it, Seacat only just made it a few inches away but when Butchy scanned over the wreckage and tried to see past the smoke now billowing from the vehicle, he couldn't see a single strand of blonde hair.
"Giggles," he breathed in dismay. His heart felt like it had shattered in his chest.
After the initial shock of the crash wore off and the visible surfers started to push themselves up from the ground Tanner ran over to his sister. But a nearby streetlight, which was violently leaning to the right since the car had hit it, showered the road with sparks just in front of him. Mixing sparks with petrol, which had spewed out of the car's tank as it drove, was never going to end well, especially for Tanner since he was so close to it. Almost instantly the petrol on the road burst into flames, so violently that it knocked Tanner off his feet.
"Tanner!" Lela screamed as she watched him fall. She couldn't help but cry out, no matter how much her throat hurt her. Mack tried to hold her to calm her down a little bit but she was sobbing hysterically because Tanner hadn't shown any signs of responding to her calling out his name.
Within seconds the entire trail of petrol was alight. The fire licked at the road around Angelica as her gaze fixed on Butchy once more. He was so shocked by what had happened because of him that he couldn't even move, he just found himself standing there. Terror had well and truly taken over his body.
Struts and Lugnut grabbed onto each other for dear life as the ghost girl began to glide towards them and Butchy was stared on in horror. But all of a sudden, something blue and red caught his eye. And there was CheeChee, running at Angelica at full pelt from behind with the faintly glowing crystal ball from earlier in her hand. She dodged the flames that were still billowing around her friends and with all the energy she had left in her she hurled the glass ball at the ground beneath where Angelica was hovering. It pretty much exploded, a blinding bolt of blue shot out of it as glass sprayed out across the road. Angelica let out an almost musical cry of pain when the crystal ball shattered. She writhed around, seemingly fighting some hidden force before she shrunk down to nothing but a blue wisp and drifted past Mack, Brady and Lela to the body of the zombie girl that had chased them (which was now laying in a crumpled heap on the path just before the corner of the path). Once it reached the body it dove down and buried into the clothes and with another flash of blue light, the body and its spirit completely disappeared.
Struts collapsed into Lugnut's arms almost instantly, her whole body was shaking with sobs and to be honest, Lugnut wasn't far behind.
"Don't worry, it's all over now," Lugnut said quietly, but his voice was shaking as much as he was.
"That thing was in my house," Struts managed to force out between sobs.
"It's gone now though," Lugnut said, before attempting some sort of a joke. "Hey, at least your mom wasn't home."
"Lugnut, that's not funny," Struts sobbed.
"I know, I know," Lugnut said, rubbing slow circles on her back as he hugged her.
"That was awful," Struts cried into his, splotchy, green chest.
"I know," Lugnut said again before adding. "Hey, do you wanna spend the night at mine tonight?"
"What?" Struts asked, gingerly lifting her head to look at him.
"Well I'm not letting you stay in that house by yourself, not that you'd really want to. And to be honest, I don't really want to sleep on my own tonight," Lugnut admitted. "What d'ya say?"
"I'd like that," Struts weakly nodded before burying her head in his chest again and letting the events of what had just happened settle in a little bit before she even thought about moving.
Butchy felt his legs moving but he had no conscious memory of telling them to do that. He just remembers falling to his knees beside the crashed car and frantically grabbing Giggles by the shoulders and dragging her out from under the wreckage. She didn't show any signs of moving and Butchy felt that with every breath he took more and more of his life was losing its meaning.
"G, G, please talk to me," he breathed, cradling the top of her body on his knees and clumsily brushing the stray strands of blonde hair away from her face. "I need you to say something, G, please." But he still wasn't getting a reply and he was just working himself into more of a state. He opened his mouth to start pleading with her again but a sob caught in his throat and tears stung his eyes. "I'm so sorry, G," he whispered after taking in a shaky breath. "I'm so sorry I did this to you. It's all my fault. And I can't lose you now, G; I'll never forgive myself." He rattled out another shaking breath as he cupped her cheek in his hand. "It sounds so stupid but I don't even care; you're my whole world. You gave my life this whole new meaning and you make me happier than anything else ever has. I didn't even think that was possible until I found you so I can't have that taken away. G, I can't lose-" He stopped as another sob threatened to leave his throat, but as he did Giggles' eyelids fluttered open.
"You'd better stop all that before you start crying; you've got a reputation to keep," she joked, mustering a smile as she looked up at Butchy, who looked relieved beyond belief.
"Oh my god, G, I'm so sorry," Butchy said hurriedly as he scooped her up into a hug so tight Giggles feared he may never let go.
"It's alright, I'm alright," she said.
"Are you sure?" Butchy asked, clearly still very concerned for her no matter what she'd just said.
"A little shaken but yeah, I'm fine," she said with a warm smile. "I don't think I could say the same for you though," she teased as Butchy just sighed and wrapped her up in another hug.
"CheeChee! That was insane!" Seacat gushed, scrambling to his feet and hopping over the dying flames to rush over to his girlfriend.
"Huh?" she murmured, still a little bewildered.
"You really were Wonder Woman, huh?" he laughed as he referenced her Halloween costume.
"I guess," CheeChee awkwardly laughed, still very anxious after spending the whole evening being absolutely terrified.
"How did you know what to do?" Seacat asked. Anyone could see how proud and utterly amazed he was just from the huge beam spreading across his face.
"Well I was holding that when Butchy pissed her off earlier," CheeChee started, pointing at the remains of the crystal ball. "And I remember it glowing blue like Coral, Rascal and the car had and I thought it must have something to do with her.
"But how did you know it would stop her?"
"I didn't I was just up for tryin' anythin' really," CheeChee sheepishly admitted.
"I don't care, that doesn't make it any less awesome!" Seacat gushed. "I officially have to coolest, most badass girlfriend ever!"
"If you say so," CheeChee giggled before Seacat picked her up and whirled her around in a circle.
"Tanner! Are you alright?!" Lela cried, running over to her boyfriend, who was only now starting to get up off the road's surface.
"Yeah," Tanner said, mustering a smile to try to put her at ease a little. "A little shocked but fine. Are you alright?" Even though Tanner had literally almost knocked himself unconscious and gone up in a blaze, he was still more concerned about Lela with her little case of tonsillitis.
"Yeah, of course I am, it's you I'm worried about," Lela cooed, wrapping one of his hands in both of hers.
"I'm fine, Lela. I promise," Tanner said. "I think we should probably get you back home now, you've had more than enough 'fresh air' for one day."
"I think so too," Lela said, helping Tanner to his feet. "I'm so glad you're ok," she continued, reaching up and quickly kissing him on the cheek. "I was really worried about you."
"I can tell," Tanner said, noting her red, puffy eyes and tear-stained cheeks, which he tried to clean up a little with his thumb.
"I don't know what I'd have done without you, Tanner," Lela said with a small shake of her head.
"You'd have gotten yourself back home and tucked up in bed with a hot drink and some medicine," Tanner said jokingly as he wrapped his arm around her waist.
"Tanner, I was trying to be serious," Lela softly giggled. "I really don't know what I would have done."
"Well let's not even think about it, ok?" Tanner said, not wanting any more upsets after all the drama tonight.
"Ok," she said, gently nodding before leaning up and pressing a kiss to his lips.
As Rascal and Coral scanned over the group of their friends to check that they were all ok they realised, to their dismay, that they were all hugging their loved ones. And then there they were, bruised, shaken and painfully single.
But Coral wasn't going to let them be miserable. Why should they after everything they'd just been through? So she glanced across at Rascal before shuffling over to him and looping her arms around his neck.
Yet again, Rascal knew that Coral was doing this so that they weren't being left out; she was just being nice again. But there was no way that he wasn't going to grab this opportunity with both hands because he had a feeling that he probably wouldn't get this chance ever again. "Are you alright?" he eventually asked, so caught up in the fact that he was getting to hug her that he had completely forgotten to check.
"Yeah, I think so," Coral replied. "Are you?"
"Yeah, I think so," Rascal agreed, but when Coral sat back he found himself involuntarily wincing a little as she nudged his knee.
"Your leg!" Coral gasped when she saw the array of grazes that had gathered under a new rip in his jeans just below his knee.
"It's fine," Rascal said, trying to draw a little less attention to himself; he'd never been one always looking to be the centre of attention.
"Are you sure? At least put a plaster on it, I don't want it getting any worse," she said, cautiously moving the fabric of the jeans away from it.
After a short pause, Rascal quickly decided that spending more time with Coral definitely wasn't a bad thing. So really this was an offer that he couldn't refuse. "Alright," he said, caving in. "I'll get a plaster."
"Come on, we'll go find you something from the first aid box at Big Momma's," Coral said with a grin as she took his hand and helped him to his feet. "I saw some with butterflies on the other day!"
"How manly," Rascal snorted sarcastically as the pair walked off laughing to themselves.
"Brady, what the hell just happened?" Mack asked, staring at the aftermath of the chaos in bewilderment.
"I don't really know," Brady sniffled, still wide-eyed and shivering. "I don't know about you, but I'm really starting to think that going back home is the best option now," he added.
"Yeah," Mack replied instinctively. But then the logical side of her brain got the better of her. "But we should at least make sure that everyone's ok first."
"You're right," Brady agreed. But no teens made an effort to move. "You alright, Mack?" he asked her
"Yeah, are you?" she answered.
"Yeah," Brady agreed.
"Good start," Mack said slightly sarcastically. "Is your cold any better?"
"What do you think?" Brady asked before letting out another monstrous sneeze.
"Well, it was worth a try," Mack said. "Come on," she continued, catching the sight of Lela out of the corner of her eye. "I think we should at least get Lela home before we do."
"Yeah, come on," Brady said, taking Mack's hand, giving it a squeeze and walking her over to the two movie leads.
No matter what happened, all twelve teens were certain that they'd never forget this Halloween as long as they lived. This certainly was a night to remember.
I hope that you liked it!
I know it's not perfect, don't worry, I'll be checking over this in a few days when it's not 11:17pm and more of my brain cells are working properly.
I'm sorry that it's so long too, I just got really carried away with it, which is why the ending may seem a little rushed too. I just wanted to tie off all the ends and get it done for you without it being another 3,000 words long.
I hope that you don't mind me writing about something a little different though because I know that it's not really the sort of thing you'd expect from me. Let me know your thoughts though. I'd love some feedback on it. I didn't really end up focusing much on the movie's main characters either (which I know a lot of you will probably be mad at me for) but I wanted to give the background characters a little more time to shine for once. I personally love reading about them and about slightly whacky storylines but if you'd much prefer me sticking to my normal type of stories then please let me know; I'd hate to disappoint you guys, especially after working on something I worked as hard as this on.
Again, I really hope that you enjoyed it and that you had a lovely Halloween! Leave me a review letting me know what you think! (Please! I know I'm really desperate but you have no idea how many hours I've endlessly typed to put this together for you. And one review from you would make it all worth while!)
And I know that this is my Halloween story but it's never too early to start thinking about Christmas so if you have any ideas for stories for then please leave them in a review!
Thank you for reading!
-cherrygorilla
P.S. ATTENTION ALL JUST LIKE ME READERS! This is a little note for you! I'm going to be writing the next chapter of the story through the eyes of the various Wet Side Story characters and because I haven't really introduced their storylines yet, I thought it would be fun if I incorporated some of your ideas into them. I'm looking for literally anything. Please don't hesitate to send any head canons you can think of my way, I'd really appreciate it. Anything from jobs for the characters to have to underlying plot lines for them in the story. Just give me anything you've got! And go into as much detail as you like! Please don't feel like you need to hold back! The more detail the better!
I've also been toying with the idea of one of the characters having a baby quite young to mix things up a little bit (I've kind of already got Lela & Tanner and Butchy & Giggles' story lines set out, as well as Struts and Lugnut's but I could change a few things for them if you desperately wanted me to. So that leaves the other four characters: Seacat & CheeChee who I love and adore and are wonderfully sarcastic, my reckless, naïve but good-intentioned little baby Coral and shy little Rascal with a bigger heart than he could ever know and a major crush (at the moment, anyway). Coral and Rascal aren't paired up with anyone yet either, so if you have any ideas for them then let me know too. Do you want them to settle down with people or are they destined to stay single forever?). Let me know your thoughts on that!
So yes, give me all the ideas you have! Owllover34, you've been good to me many times before so I'm hoping I can at least count on you to help me with something. But please help! I need all the ideas I can get because when I've got a clear outline of the characters' lives I can start on the chapter. Anything from jobs, relationships, children and characteristics would be really helpful. Thank you guys!