Chapter Two:
"So does anyone else here think it's weird that we're trick or treating in England?" Mel asked conversationally as she walked up to the first door. Everyone laughed. "Well, we did it in Australia," Tilly said reasonably in her Master Splinters voice. "Granted, that wasn't conventionally but we did it for fun. And Jo was right, I reckon. Why not let us feel a bit more at home here? We've been living here for almost eight months and, honestly, it's sort of been hard to find anything remotely traditional to us. England's different, guys. And as Elise said, why not make our own traditions for us alone?" Everyone clapped Tilly on her wisdom, hiding their sincerity by acting appropriately to their character. Mel hugged her and leaped around on the front porch a bit. Elise laughed evilly and jumped around like a gorilla. Joanne kept a straight face and clapped her with minimal effort and strokes. They all laughed before regaining themselves. "Alright, ready guys? Here we go; house number one!" She pressed the doorbell.
Ding Dong!
"You laugh like a happy little elf," Jo muttered to Elise slyly as the door opened. She snorted and started laughing, trying to hold it in. The stranger at the door looked at her strangely before Mel and Tilly screamed out "Trick or Treat!"
"Wow. Nice costumes. What's the occasion?" the man said. Tilly and Mel took over the job of talking. "It's Halloween!" they announced cheerfully. The man looked at them for a while. "Well, although I don't celebrate it, you guys seem to have done a good job. You're clearly not from around here. Maybe I have something in the pantry. I'll be right back." He walked away, shutting the screen door. The girls stayed in silence, trying their hardest not to laugh. Elise had her hand over her mouth completely, breathing through her nose, trying to regain herself. "Snotty," Jo said simply to her, her facial expression not changing as she stared ahead. Elise snorted again, bending over laughing. The man walked out at that moment and looked at her. He shook his head as he handed them a trinket each. "Thank you!" Mel said enthusiastically as the man waved them good bye and they headed down the street. They all eagerly looked at what they'd received.
"I got an apple!" Mel stated with a laugh.
"Nice to know the man recognises an herbivore when he sees one," Joanne interjected, laughing and turning to Tilly. "What you get?"
"I got a cheese stick!" They all laughed at the irony of it.
"I got a panadol and a tissue!" Elise said with a laugh.
"That's 'cause you're a headache!" the other three all said at the same time. Elise laughed and pretended to look sad. "What about you, Jo?" they asked.
"I got a banana. The biggest banana you'll ever see. It's a gun. It's my gun." She said, showing them a huge banana.
"That's what he said!" Elise and Mel shouted together, giving each other high-fives. They all laughed, before putting their trinkets away and moving to the next house.
***
Two hours later and three streets down, they sat outside a house on a gutter. "Wanna call it quits soon?" Mel asked. The others agreed.
"Let's do a few more houses though, hey? Just one or two?" Jo asked. "Those one's there look a bit more fannnncay" she said, sporting a cliche, pompous Pommy accent as she pointed to the other side of the street.
Groans met her request.
"Aw, come on! Two more!" said Tilly, her enthusiasm not wearing down despite the hours of walking. "We wanted to do this! Come on!" The girls stood up and walked across the road to one of the two story villas. With Mel and Tilly leading, they knocked on the door. Footsteps were heard thundering down stairs. "Hey, Elise..." Jo said, again staring at the door without changing her facial expression. She absolutely loved playing in character.
"Don't talk to me. You make me laugh at the wrong times."
"What did the barman say to the cow?"
"Don't talk to me," she hissed.
"Get out of here! You're a cow!"
Elise snorted with laughter before clapping her hand over her mouth to hold it in. "That is the stupidest joke I have EVER – "
The door opened to a young man about their age. He stared at them through his brown fringe surprised, looking at each and every one of them before finally settling on the girl in the back who was laughing her head off. "Can I, ah, help you?" He said, eyeing them doubtfully.
"Trick or treat," the girls replied, shouting enthusiastically. He looked at them blankly before another man came to the door. Blonde and topless, a tattoo of a star was drawn on his chest. He looked at them and laughed. "Wow. It's Dorothy," he said simply. "I haven't seen her around here before..."
"Told you so," Elise breathed to Mel.
"How can we help you ladies?"
"They're trick or treating, whatever that is," the first man said. He was interrupted by the appearance of another guy. "What's happening?" he asked shyly, hiding behind the other two. A slow grin was etching onto Tilly's face at the unexpected turn of the situation. "Trick or treat-errs" the second one replied. "Who?" another voice asked, before a fourth man appeared, topless too, wearing baggy jeans that hung loosely on him. "Woah," he said when he saw them.
"Oooh." Joanne expressed unexpectedly a high pitched noise of surprise. Everyone looked to the two back girls, not knowing from whom the sound came from. Jo stayed in character looking evenly back at everyone, not changing her face from her blank but menacing stare. She slowly lifted her arm to be pointing at Elise. Elise stood still, staring wide eyed at everyone. "Pffff!" she exclaimed incredulously. "I swear it wasn-" She was shut up as Mel interrupted.
"Um, so... yeah. Trick or treat guys."
"What is that?" The blonde one asked. Mel laughed, doing a little dance in her dinosaur suit.
"It's where you give us candy!" she announced. The boys looked at her.
"Aren't you a bit old for that?" the first one asked, shaking his brown hair from his face.
"NEVER!" Tilly stated confidently as the other two laughed. Jo didn't smile, although her three friends could tell from experience she was pissing herself inside.
"Is that... is that a banana in your skirt?" The last of guys asked, pointing to Joanne. She looked at him evenly.
"Wouldn't you like to know," she said plainly, making her friends snort, the other boys laugh, and the guy who asked grin embarrassingly He was saved by his friend behind him who bashfully asked, "Hey, aren't you three out of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles?" The boys all looked closely and decided it was true. "Oh mate, that is soo cool," the shy one said, rubbing his hands enthusiastically before he was pushed away playfully by the one who answered the door.
"So um, do you, ah, have any candy or do we just go?" Mel asked eventually. The boys looked at each other. "We don't really have anything," the star chest said, rubbing his head awkwardly. Mel gave him a thumbs-up with her Dorothy costume. "We shall go then! See you around!"
"Wait! Could you tell us your names?"
The girls looked at each other and an unspoken conversation passed through them. "You may ask it if that is what you truly desire," Tilly said in her sensei voice. They waited until the boys understood the joke.
"Oh! Um, what are your names?" the brown haired one asked.
"Dorothy!" said Mel, blowing them a kiss before pushing past Elise to run down the path. "Master Splinter!" Tilly answered, knocking them on the head lightly with her staff before following Mel.
"Creepy stone man!" Elise said, turning around and loping back gorilla like towards the others. It left Jo standing there, staring back at the boys staring at her. "General Serpiente," she said, walking backwards, still staring at the last guy before turning around and running to the end of the path. She stopped at the street, turning back to look once more at the four of the boys. She lifted one side of her cheek in a crooked smile before reaching to her skirt to pull out the banana. She nodded in acknowledgement before throwing it straight at them. The last boy caught it and held it in his hands. They looked at it to see scratched into it was a home phone number. They looked back up to see nothing.