Little Halloween

Disclaimer: If I had a dollar for every time I had to write that I'm using Joss Whedon's characters and whatnot...then I don't know how much money I'd have, but whatever...Idea from a challenge by gidgetgirl.

Sunnydale Elementary School

Halloween 1986

"All right, let's all get together so I can take a picture of all of you in your costumes," Miss Dana, the kindergarten teacher, called as she tried to hurdle all fifteen students into one area of the classroom.

Willow Rosenberg, dressed as a yellow crayon, dutifully obeyed her teacher as she quickly walked over to the corner where Miss Dana was. "I'm here," she announced proudly.

Miss Dana smiled as she looked down at the redhead. "Yes, you are," she said with a smile. "Such a cute costume!" she complimented.

"Thank you," Willow said shyly. "Can I be next to Xander in the picture?" she asked curiously. "Our outfits go together and he's my boyfriend."

As if on cue, a young Xander Harris walked up. And like Willow had said, his costume did go with hers as he was a blue crayon. "Hi Willow," he said as he stood next to her.

"Hi Willow," Jesse echoed as he approached the crayon couple. "Grr...Arrgh," he said as he waved his hook in front of his two friends. "I'm a pirate!" he added, gesturing at his scruffy clothes and small paper parrot on his shoulder.

"Well, you smell as bad as one," Cordelia commented coldly as she gathered around the teacher.

"What are you supposed to be?" Jesse asked as he studied Cordelia's tight red dress and shoes with a small heel. "Barbie?"

Cordelia shook her head. "I'm a movie star," she informed him before walking over to a blond girl dressed as a sheep. "Harmony, promise that you will never hang out with those losers," Cordelia told the girl as she pointed back at Willow, Jesse, and Xander.

"Totally," Harmony agreed as she and Cordelia were positioned into place.

"There," Miss Dana said proudly a few minutes later. All of her students were together in one place and would stay that way for at least one minute. "Smile," she called. As soon as the picture was taken, the students dispersed and wandered around the classroom.

"Now what?" one little student asked. "I'm bored."

"Well," Miss Dana began as she kneeled down closer to the students level, "now we wait for some of the high school students to get here. They're going to take you trick-or-treating."

"Real high school students?" Cordelia asked in astonishment. "I hope they like me," she added a moment later.

"I'm sure they will," one of the boys dressed as a skeleton said as he walked up to Cordelia. "Everyone likes you."

"Attention," Miss Dana called as she pulled away from the window. The high school buses had pulled up and various students were piling out of them. "The high school kids are going to be here very soon. I need you all to split up into three groups of five students each, ok?" she asked.

"Ok!" came the loud, energetic reply from her class. They then began dividing up, calling their friends to be in their group and whatnot.

"Let's not be with Cordelia," Jesse declared firmly as he, Willow, and Xander huddled together.

"Of course!" Willow said in agreement.

"Yea," Xander added. "I will never want to be with Cordelia. I hate her!"

"Excuse me," a quiet whisper came from behind Willow. Willow turned around and found a small girl standing there dressed in a black witch dress with a large hat. "Can I be in your group?" the witch asked.

Willow nodded. "Sure," she agreed. "It'd be nice to have a girl with me. I'm Willow," she introduced.

"Tara," the witch whispered back softly as she moved in closer to the three friends. "I-I like your costume."

"Thanks," Willow said. "I like yours too."

"Jonathan!" Xander called to the young boy standing over by the window. His costume was very simple- just a plain white towel thrown over his head to represent a ghost. Jonathan turned to face Xander. "Want to be in our group?" Xander asked curiously. "We need one more person."

Jonathan shrugged. "Ok," he said as he walked over to the four.

"Good, good," Miss Dana said as she studied her students' groups. Every one was in one and the groups were all equal. She stuck her head out into the hallway and held up three fingers to represent the number of high school students she needed.

Three students, two girls and a boy, came over to the kindergarten classroom. "We're here," the boy announced as he looked at the three groups of five-year-olds in front of him.

"Very good," Miss Dana said. "Ok, Cordelia's group go with this boy here dressed as aÉa" She frowned as she tried to identify what this boy was dressed as. She wanted to say soldier since he was dressed in a green shirt and camouflaged pants, but she was uncertain. "Soldier?" she asked curiously.

The boy shrugged. "Works for me," he said honestly as he took the group assigned to him.

Miss Dana smiled as she looked at the remaining two groups. "Ok, Percy's group goes with this girl dressed as Dorothy and Xander's group go with Catwoman."

Xander and Jesse smiled as they waked over to their leader. Willow, Tara, and Jonathan followed close behind. "Hi," Xander said enthusiastically. "You're very pretty."

The girl dressed as Catwoman smiled. "Thank you," she said as she pulled her five students to the side. "Wanna know a secret?" she asked curiously.

"What kind of secret?" Jonathan asked.

"About getting extra candy," Catwoman whispered back.

The five kindergarteners smiled amongst one another. "Yea!" Xander yelled happily as he eagerly waited to know the secret.

Catwoman smiled. "Tears are the key factor," she began as she took Tara and Jonathan by the hand and began walking down the school hallway. Willow, Xander, and Jesse eagerly followed. "And you can try to tell the person that they missed you, but that's dangerous. Only use it for chocolate," she advised.

"Pretty and smart," Xander whispered to Jesse. "Can we marry her?"

"What about me?" Willow asked. "I'm pretty and smart, right?"

"Of course you are," Xander said as he rushed to keep up. "Hey Catwoman!" he called out. "What's your name?"

"Courtney," she responded instantly. "And what about all of you?" she asked as she stopped briefly, turning around to face them. "Starting with the crayons."

"I'm Xander," Xander announced proudly. "And this is Willow."

"Jonathan."

"Tara."

"Jesse," Jesse announced as he finished the introductions. "Now let's go get some candy!"

"As long as our school's not selling it," Courtney mumbled under her breath as she walked up to catch up with her students.

"Come on," Xander begged as they rounded the corner of the next street. "I'm hungry and we need energy!"

"You don't have to eat all the candy along the way," Willow pointed out.

"Yes, we do," Jesse argued. "Candy is like air. It gives us life."

Jonathan nodded but did not speak for his mouth was filled with skittles. His eyes lit up as he pointed at a house on the corner. He swallowed his candy before elaborating on his gestures. "They give our whole candy bars. The regular sizes!"

"Then let's go!" Xander said excitedly as the five of them began rushing up to the house. To their disappointment, Cordelia, Harmony, and the rest of their group were there as well.

"Something's wrong with this woman," Cordelia pointed out as she waved her hand in front of the woman's face. The woman did not react, did not blink or anything. She stood there, frozen.

"Steal the candy!" Jesse announced as he, Xander, and Jonathan each reached for three large candy bars.

"Hey," Harmony pouted. "We were here first!"

"You snooze, you loose," Xander remarked as he reached for the last chocolate bar. He then shrugged, handing it back to Willow. "Here."

"Thanks," Willow said as she put the bar into her orange pumpkin bucket filled with candy. "But isn't this a little bit weird? She's just not moving."

"Maybe she's playing Freeze Tag with someone," Jesse said dismissively.

"Like who?" Cordelia asked doubtfully. "The Boogie Man?"

"Hey, don't doubt the Boogie Man," another student said as he came up with his group. He was dressed no differently than any other day with the exception of a small nametag under his left shoulder reading 'Hello, my name is my dad'.

"Who are you?" Cordelia asked.

"Oz, don't listen to her," the student's friend said. "She's younger than us. Anyway, there's no candy here. Let's go."

"Go where?" the student, presumably named Oz, asked as he looked around the street. "It all seems to be like this house. No candy and adults who don't move."

"Wait," the soldier taking around Cordelia's group said. "This is going on at every house?"

The little boys nodded. "Happened at the other house we went to," Oz's friend informed the older boy.

Courtney moved closer towards the soldier boy. "This is definitely not normal," she whispered. "Think we should let Denise in on all this nonsense?"

"What could she do about it?" the boy asked.

Courtney shrugged. "I'm not sure exactly. But when she moved here, she said if something weird happened then she would be able to fix it."

"Something weird?"

"Well, something like this," Courtney snapped. "Come on, we're supposed to be watching these children. You keep an eye on them, I'll sneak inside this woman's house and use her phone to call Denise."

The boy groaned and rolled his eyes. "What am I supposed to do with ten little runts?"

While the two teenagers were arguing, Jesse managed to pull the other kindergarteners away from the house and onto the street. "Come on, let's have some fun!" he said excitedly.

"I don't know," Cordelia began with uncertainty. "We don't even know where we are."

"No one's asking you to come," Xander snapped as he and Willow began following Jesse down the street.

"Good thing too," Willow muttered. "So what are we going to do, Jesse?" she asked curiously.

"Like I said," Jesse began. "Think about it. Who tells us what we can and cannot do? Our parents. If they're all broken like that old lady, then they can't tell us what we're doing is bad."

Xander smiled. "Yea, I like that," he said happily. "Come on, let's go have fun!"

"Where?" Willow asked curiously.

"The Bronze?" Willow asked curiously as she stood nervously in front of the club. "Isn't that for older people? People Courtney's age?"

"Not tonight," Jesse announced proudly as he walked inside. "Tonight we all party here."

"I-I don't know," Tara began in the same voice Cordelia had earlier. "This is filled with older kids and I don't feel good here."

"The girls are right, Jesse," Jonathan added. "We shouldn't be here."

"That's right you shouldn't be here," a voice boomed from behind the five children. Slowly they turned around, frightened by what they saw. A large man was standing there, but it was no ordinary man. Something was wrong with his face, Willow noted. It was much bumpier than a normal man's.

"Neither should scary dead things," a woman perked up as she walked over to the creepy thing. She was teenaged and dressed like a superhero. In her right hand, she clutched a wooden stake. "Don't you know anything?" she asked the thing.

"I don't think he does," Jesse put in.

The girl rolled her eyes. "You kids get out of here. I'll handle this guy," she told them. As the group began doing as they were told, the girl spoke to the creature. "Vamps take Halloween off," she pointed out. "Follow the rules," she scolded.

"Great plan," Willow grumbled to Jesse as they began walking down the alley. "Let's go to a club we're too young for."

"It was fine until that creepy man showed up," Jesse argued his case.

"Now what?" Xander asked as he fought back a yawn.

"Now we go and find out what the heck is going on here," Cordelia exclaimed as she rushed up to the other people her age.

"Cordy," Xander groaned. "What are you doing here?"

"I lost track of everyone else," Cordelia answered. "Something really wrong is going on here," she pouted. "Someone has to stop it before we end up dead."

"No, someone has to stop it before we are dead," Xander said as he gestured at himself, Jesse, Willow, Tara, and Jonathan. "You can die whenever."

"Duck!" the teenager who had saved them at the Bronze called out as she ran into the alley. She then began attacking some large red thing with numerous horns.

"Cool," Xander, Jesse, and Jonathan said as they watched in awe. Cordelia, Willow, and Tara had the opposite reaction to that as they were busy shielding their eyes.

Minutes later, the thing was dead. A large white light emerged from his body and seemed to go throughout Sunnydale. One by one, the various adults around town began returning to their normal selves. Fully conscious normal selves, that is.

"You still want some fun?" Xander asked Jesse as the six children began walking up to the teenaged girl.

Jesse shrugged. "I want candy," he said exhaustedly. "I have no more energy for fun."

The teenaged girl shrugged. "Let's get you back to the school," she said softly as she took Cordelia and Tara by the hand and began leading everyone back to Sunnydale Elementary.

((Yes, I am sorry for the crappy ending...))