Halloween Jitters
Liz walked down the hallway towards her 3rd hour class, English with Ms. Maeson. All around students where laughing or screaming because of some joke played on them. Just about to turn the corner she saw another sign advertising the annual Halloween dance that was to take place in the school on the 29th of the month.
Smiling, she wondered what oddball costume Maria had come up with. Every year Maria would go all out for that one day of the year. And every year, Maria would make Liz dress-up in something just as odd.
"Hey Liz" the oh so familiar voice of Max Evans appeared from her right.
"Hmm? Oh Hi Max, whats up?", 'Oh the was too lame... Great goin' Liz' she mentally kicked herself.
"Oh nothin...." Liz noticed that Max was fidgeting.. like he was debating about asking her a question.
"Nothin? Well that's alot" She smiled, hoping he'd get to the point.
"So...umm... Are you going to the Halloween dance?" He looked at the floor, as if afraid to meet her eyes.
Liz's heart skipped a beat. Was this it? Was he finally going to ask her out? "Yeah... Probably..."
"Oh? So... well... you see..." Max desperately tried to think of something else to say.
Right then Isabel chose to walk by and whispered just low enough for only him to hear."Just ask her out, stupid"
Max blushed and laughed nervously, "Um.... Would you... Would you like to go with me to the Halloween dance, just as friends of corse"
He said it so fast that Liz wasn't sure she had heard him right. "Could you... repeat that?" She waited patiently.
Max repeated it as slow as he could, but considering his nervousness, it was still pretty fast. He was even more nervous when Liz nodded, accepting his request. "Um... thanks" He ran off to his 3rd period, leaving Liz in a slightly shocked state as she continued on her way to English.
Maria ran through the halls, trying to get to her 3rd hour befor the bell. 'No no no no no no... Cant be late, If Im late one more time, I get detention... I dont wanna be like Michael whos late all the time...' Crash!
"What...?" Maria picked up her books that where now scattered on the ground. Looking up she relized that she had ran into Michael. 'Can he read minds or something?' He always appeard when she thought about him, and to put it frankly, It gave her the chills. And now he was gathering his stuff, never noticing that it was Maira who he had ran into.
"Hey, sorry about that..." He finally looked over and his face paled slightly."Oh.. Hi Maria..." He was about to say something more but was interupded by the bell.
"OH CRAP!" Maria yelled out despite the fact that she knew her fate. "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
Michael watched her yell out, till it finally clicked on why she was screaming. "Whoa whoa... Maria, Chill. Your Just gonna be late."
Maira looked at him as if he grew another head, didnt he get it that she was going to have detention.... Wait a minute... he probably wouldnt get it since he's skipped so much..."Im gonna get detention, dufus" She quickly headed off to her class.
Michael looked at her as she ran off, then continued on his way... to Advanced English, that one class that no one believed he had gotten in... He didnt even beleive it at first.
"So she's gonna be there too..." He chuckled, and walked into class... 20 minutes late.
"CAN YOU BELIEVE THIS?" Maria yelled enraged as her and Liz traveled through the mall. She had just informed her of her lovely after school predicament that she was supposed to appear for on the 29th.
"Believe what? That you got detention the night of the dance?" Liz looked over at Maria calmly with a raised eyebrow.
"Your impossible too!" Maria threw up her hands, causing the mall-goers to turn and stare.
Liz laughed, "Hey don't worry about it, its just a detention".
Maria gasped. "JUST A DETENTION! What the heck are you thinking? Oh wait a minute... Never mind...Forget it..." Maria was feed-up. Trying to explain how unfun to someone who never gets detention was impossible. "So what should I be for Halloween?"
Liz looked over at her companion, aghast. "You mean you don't have a costume yet? You usually have one by the first day of school!"
"Yeah, I know... but this year I couldn't think of anything freaky enough."
"Am I hearing this right? The Great Maria DuLuca couldn't think of a freaky costume? Are you ok?" Liz pretended to faint from shock.
"Actually... I don't know..." Maria looked slightly confused. She really didn't have a clue to what she should be. She was thinking maybe and obsessive teenybopper with two heads... but she didn't think that she could find another head.
"Why don't you be Brittney Spears?" Liz laughed when Maria gave her a gagging expression.
"You've got to be joking" Maria smiled. 'That's actually not such a bad idea...' She thought... now If only she could get the glitter... "So what are you going to be?" Maria wondered aloud.
"I was thinking Christina Agularia... minus the hair." Liz looked over at her friend, who was laughing loudly. Neither one of the two cared for the 12 and over male sex objects... but hey, they could be great costumes...
"Max.... I cant believe you..." Michael groaned from the passenger side of Max's jeep.
Max glanced over with a smirk. "What? Do you not want me to go?"
"I don't care if you go, I just don't want you to make me go" Michael held up his hands.
"You never do anything"
"Correction Mon Capitan, I do, do stuff. Just stuff no one would care to know" Michael grinned evilly as Max's face twisted to a disgusted glare. "Hey, Maxie boy. Just kidding. Ouch! Hey Max... DON'T DO THAT! OWWWWW" Michael cried out as Max started punching him in the arm... Hard.
"Freak, just for that. You ARE going." Michael gave him pitiful puppy dog eyes. "Don't look at me like that.... Fine... you don't have to go..." Max gave in.
Michael smiled proudly at Max's defeat, then it deflated when he heard Max's next words. "So I hear Maria's going to be there too"
Maria walked into the room that she was assigned to go to for her hour of after school detention, she was wearing a miniskirt and probably the worlds tightest shirt. Looking down she blinked in shock. There sitting before her was Michael, smug and looking oddly happy. But then again... he could be sleeping, she judged considering his eyes where closed. Deciding that it might be fun to scare him, she walked quietly to the seat right behind him and got ready to jerk him awake.
"Maria, don't even" He said, still smiling that foolish smile of his.
"Damn you, you where just waiting for me to do that, weren't you?"
Michael nodded. "So what'd you do to get stuck here?"
"Was tardy one to many times" she replied sharply, "because of you"
"Me?" He turned around sharply, "What did I do?"
"As if you didn't know!" Maria practically screamed, thank God the teacher that was supposed to supervise them wasn't there yet. "Because You walked right into me, making me drop all my books, when I had only 30 seconds to get to class, AND I WOULD HAVE MADE IT IF YOU HADN'T DONE THAT!"
Michael looked around, hoping no one had heard Maria's outburst. "Maria... Calm down..." He put his hands on her shoulders. "You don't want the whole school to hear you...Do you?" The where a few students in the school still. They where setting up for the dance tonight.
All of a sudden the classroom door slammed shut, causing the two to turn and look towards it.
"What the..." Maria started.
Michael got up from his seat, luckily they where still alone in the classroom. He walked over to the door of the class and tried to open it. It wouldn't budge.
"Why isn't it opening?" Maria got up and stared at the door.
"I don't know..." Michael was perplexed.
"Well... Cant you do one of your alien things and open it?" Maria asked, hoping to get out of there soon.
"No, I cant do one of my 'alien things' to open the door. I don't know whose out there." Michael was irritated. Who ever had looked them in the room together was going to get it.... Big time.
Two figures walk away from the room, laughing. One we can tell is a female, the other a male.
"Good one" The male chuckled and gave the girl a high five.
"I know!"
"Hey Max, have you seen Maria?" Max turned around to see Liz dressed in one of the most revealing things he'd ever seen. A short skirt and a see through shirt with a big ruffle in front of it.
Max blinked, rubbed his eyes and blinked again. "Liz...?" He asked as if not recognizing her. His eyes where bugging out of his head.
"Yeah?" Liz looked at him confused, then realized what he was gawking at a lovingly smacked him. "Stop staining... Its making me feel uncomfortable..."
"Huh? Oh...Sorry. What did you ask?" Max blushed.
Liz smiled. Tonight Max looked more handsome then he normally did. His hair was slicked back and he was wearing pitch black tux with only a hint of blue caused from the lighting of the room. To top it all off, he had a cape to complement everything. "So Max, have you seen her? Maria I mean"
Max looked around. "No I haven't seen her since this afternoon. Why?"
"Just wondering. She said she was just going to stay here after detention, since she was part of the decorating committee. Weird that I haven't seen her yet." Liz was puzzled. Maria should be here.
"So what are you supposed to be, anyway?" Michael looked at Maria.
"Brittany Spears..." Maria responded, from her spot on the ground.
"Really..." Michael had to admit, in that outfit that Maria was wearing...well in any outfit, really... It would make even the pop-star jealous of Maria's looks.
"Yeah, you got a problem with that?" Maria hissed. She was still mad about being stuck in the room, more because she was missing the dance then because she was stuck with Michael. They had tried banging on the door, but it didn't work. Not a single person, as far as Maria could tell, came by the class.
"Yes, you look nothing like her" Michael commented
"Really? Well that's just nice and dandy, cause you know what? I Don't Care." Maria was getting mad. Who did he think he was, insulting her like that!
Michael looked over and saw fire in the girl's eyes. "What? I wasn't insulting you. Your much too beautiful to even be compared to her." Michael said with sincerity.
"Really?" Maria looked at him with new found appreciation. "Do you really think that?"
Michael smiled. "Why would I lie?"
"Because, you just want me to think your being nice and all to get on my good side. And just when you'll get close enough. BAM! You'll hurt my feelings or something." Maria looked away towards the direction of the Dance, trying to figure out the truth.
Liz looked up at her date, Max. He looked like he was debating something. What? She didn't know. Maybe he'll want to dance. She knew that she'd agree in a second... If only he'd ask. Suddenly, he seemed to be reading her thoughts, cause he finally asked her to dance.
As they moved out to the floor, Liz was in heaven. She was content to stay in Max's arms till the day she died. They swayed to the soft, slow melody of Sarah McLachlan's "Angel".
Liz lifted her head up off of Max's shoulder and kissed him lightly on the lips. Max, though amazed at the feeling, kissed her back.
"Hey..." Michael looked over at Maria. She was looking out in the direction of the music. 'She must have really wanted to be out there...' He thought.
"Hmmmm?" Maria looked back, wiping what seemed to be a tear a way from her eyes.
"You ok?" He got up and walked over to the teenage girl.
"Yeah... You know what? I wanted to come to this damn dance so much. My only problem is that I'd be here alone, since Max took Liz." She smiled softly, as if she had forced it.
"No one asked you?" Michael couldn't believe that. Maria was in his opinion one of the most beautiful girls in the school. Hell, she was the most beautiful.
"Nope... well a couple of guys did.... but not the person I wanted"
"Who would that be?" Michael was interested and deeply saddened at the same time. He was hoping that it was him who she was talking about. But if it wasn't, he wanted to know who the guy was that stole, then broke Maria's heart.
"No one... of any real importance...." Maria sighed, and looked up at him with eyes that made Michael feel like he was on cloud 9 1/2. "So... you wanna dance?" She asked him, hoping for an affirmative.
"Sure..." He said hesitantly. He could hear a slow dance coming from the gymnasium. Getting up he took Maria into his arms and together they danced, in complete bliss. Michael was thinking about kissing her and was actually getting ready to do it when....
"Hey you two!"
Michael and Maria jumped apart. The Principal had opened the door. "Um.... h...hi... Mr. Principal sir... Ma'am" Maria stuttered, her mind blanking.
Principal Anders looked at the two teenagers, "Just what where you two doing in there?" She was enraged. Whatever these two kids had been doing in this room was surely inappropriate! Locking the door and all, they could have....
Michael stepped forward with an answer. "We came here for detention after school ma'am, and the door closed. When we tried to open it, it wouldn't budge."
"Go on" Anders nodded, listening.
"We sat here and waited, but no one came" Michael said honestly.
Ms. Anders stood there for a few minutes, and then made a decision. "Too bad, I don't believe you Michael Guerin. Both of you have a REAL detention on Monday"
"But Ms. Anders you ca-" Maria and Michael's pleads where cutoff.
"I don't wanna hear it, Just get out of here before I give you a weeks detention" She glared.
"Yes ma'am" They hurried off towards the dance.
Max and Liz returned from the dance floor only to see a very red Michael and Maria.
"Where have you too been?" Max looked at them with a wary eye.
"No where you need to know" Michael gave him a look that said 'Someplace you'll never go'
Liz and Maria looked at one another. "So where were you?" Liz asked Maria.
"Remember how I told you that I had detention?" Maria started, but was interrupted by Isabel Evans and Alex .
"And you and Michael got locked in there!" Isabel looked them over.
"Yeah, how'd you know?" Michael stalked over to her.
"Well... we..Well it was Alex's Idea..." Isabel looked around and then hid behind her brother.
"You locked us in there.. didn't you Isabel?" Maria gave her a look that could kill even Medusa.
"Well... It was just a joke..."
"We've been locked in there since school got out!" Michael was ready to kill.. and right now, his best friend's sister was fitting enough.
"We thought someone would have let you guys out hours ago. But when we didn't see either one of you here we walked by the classroom and Isabel was going to open the door, but Ms. Anders came by and told us to get lost." Alex babbled his explanation.
"So you let them get into trouble for something you did?" Max and Liz shared disapproving looks.
"You Idiot!" Isabel, Maria and Michael lunged for Alex. They were all mad, for there own reasons. Well... Maria and Michael where mad because he locked them in the classroom. Isabel was mad because he told them that it was her idea... even though it was.
~~~Monday After School~~~
"I cant believe she gave us all detention." Isabel grumbled, heading for the assigned classroom.
"Shut up Isabel" Maria glared. She was more than pissed. Ms. Anders gave Isabel and Alex detention, but didn't revoke her's and Michael's, since she had still caught them in the locked room, alone. She didn't really believe Michael's story, and probably never would.