Girl's Not Grey - AFI

Don't Fear the Reaper - Blue Oyster Cult

I Miss You - Blink 182

The Boy Who Blocked His Own Shot - Brand New

Kurt got his drama class with Rogue as his teaching assistant and then the co-teacher once she graduated in December. It was still October though. October thirty first to be exact. Halloween had fallen on a Saturday this year and the students were overjoyed. They couldn't go out trick or treating, but the Professor and the rest of the staff held an annual Halloween party.

In Holly's opinion it was more of a school dance. As one of the staff she had to chaperone and help decorate. She'd spent the afternoon blowing up black and orange balloons – with an air pump – and tied them to strings which Piotr or Logan took and hung crisscrossing above the grassy area just off the basketball court.

"Holly," Storm said, approaching with several stuffed bags. She handed them off to the shorter woman, "Can you fill up some of the bowls on the buffet tables with these?"

Holly opened one bag and promptly gawked at the candy. Sure there were apples too but holy crap. That was a lot of candy. She took one large bag of apples out and raised an eyebrow at Storm, "Bobbing for apples or candied apples?"

Storm's smile was bright, "Both. There's another bag in my car."

By six thirty that night Holly was imagining that this was what Charlie Bucket must have felt like when Willy Wonka opened the factory doors. She tugged at her costume, annoyed that she'd measured the cloth wrong and hadn't had enough left to cover her wrists. Not that it mattered. She was a chaperone and fairly anti-social.

No one was going to try to dance with her. Oh well. At least she wasn't the only one dressing up in a costume tonight. Storm was dressed as Cat Woman. Piotr was a Viking. Someone was dressed like Rorschach. A few students had costumes from various anime characters, the rest were dressed in the classic costumes. A few witches, one mummy, a little red riding hood, a little Bo Peep with a stuffed sheep under her arm, a prince charming, a ghost, Superman, Dracula, V accompanied by Evie, Hawaiian Barbie, a few boys dressed as the Rat Pack, a Harry Potter and…

Wow.

Rogue waved to her. She sported Zöe's Goddess tattoos from House of Night. Jimmy, who was dancing with her was wearing a Phantom of the Opera mask, cloak and what looked like a black tux.

A student in a gorilla costume dance past her.

"I thought the party didn't start until seven," Holly almost had to shout at Storm.

Storm was putting out the buffet trays, "It's going to rain later tonight. I thought it was better to start the party now."

Instead of keeping the skies clear herself. Holly almost laughed. Almost.

She help put the food into the burner trays.

"Logan," Storm called the uncostumed man over. She tossed him a box of matches, "Light the citronella candles or we're going to be swarmed."

There was always a price to pay for Indian summers and in the state of New York, it was mosquitoes. The food was out, the candles were lit, tacky tiki torches were fired up, the kids were bobbing for apples, dancing or eating and even the Professor had come out with Doctor MacTaggert to the teacher's table.

"Want to dance?" Piotr asked.

Holly shook her head, "No thanks Pete. I suck at dancing."

"So do I," he replied but let it go.

There was a definite shortage of female teachers. That was the second time she'd been asked to dance. Holly looked down at her costume, Alice in Wonderland though she had to fudge with the sleeves of the costume and the gloves. It certainly wasn't the costume getting her asked, that was for certain.

"Miss Harper," Jimmy said when he and Rogue stopped at the drinks table to grab sodas, "you look awesome."

Okay, maybe it was the costume.

Holly gave him a smile, "Thanks Jimmy. I love your costume."

His eyes lit up, "Thanks! I keep getting asked who I am."

She made a mental note to include the book Phantom of the Opera as one of the reading assignments. It would be slotted in before Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker series. In the spirit of screwed up romances that was one for the record books. She told the two teenagers to have fun when they'd grabbed their drinks.

"Nice get up," Logan's said.

Holly nearly jumped. He hadn't spoken a word to her since he'd invited himself to her viewing of Nine and a Half Weeks. She'd had several sleepless nights in the past two weeks without him bothering her once. Maybe he'd learned his lesson.

"Thanks," she replied and sipped at her paper cup of water.

Then he went silent and watched the kids, but he hadn't moved away. He waited until she had a mouth full of water, "Wanna dance?"

Holly sputtered and nearly spit her water out. He slapped her back when she made a choking sound, not hard but damn it was shocking enough to get her to suck in air. Holly blinked at him, set her cup down, "Um…what?"

He did not look happy to have to say it again, but he removed the cigar from his mouth, "Dance."

If anyone had asked her previously if she had thought that he danced she would have said no. It was very, very strange thought. He looked sort of…well… Aside from Johnny Depp in Cry Baby and Patrick Swayze in Dirty Dancing, Holly didn't think bad boys – which Logan obviously was – danced.

"I can't dance," Holly replied after a minute. It was a ridiculously outrageous lie. Her grandfather had made her take dance lessons at the officer's club for years until her mutation developed. But he wasn't going to know that. She went to sip her drink again, and then thought better of it. "Sorry."

If he suspected she was lying he didn't say anything. He did give her a skeptical look, but he didn't move away like Pete had. He just seemed to hang out like he was waiting for her to go back on her decision.

Yeah, because that was so going to happen.

Holly went back to watching the students. Eventually he'd get tired of hanging out near her and go away. That was what she was thinking when she saw it coming. An awkward and oversized boy knocked into another boy, tall and blonde. Tall and blonde boy side stepped to avoid any further contact or the chance at getting knocked down. His stepping away forced the girl that had been waiting near him to move.

It was sort of like watching dominos.

The succession of events ended the way Holly had known it would. To avoid being knocked into Logan moved. His hand brushed against the gap between Holly's gloves and shirt.

It was a one in a million shot in the dark. The contact lasted less than a few seconds.

Holly's eyes rolled back into her head. The convulsions started. Her nose leaked red streaking blood that ran down across her lips, onto her cheeks, past her jaw, and hit the floor. Her costume's white apron was crimson with it.

As always Holly had no actual sense of any of this.

Instead her mind flooded with a myriad of his life. Her head pounded with it. There was too much. Too much memory for someone that looked to only be in his mid thirties. Too much transfer. Too much feel.

It took forever for the black to set in.

Let's hope there's no bad Karma for doing something like that to your characters. Ask anyone, I'm not kind to my OC's.

Thank you so much for the reviews. I really do love knowing that people enjoy reading what I have to write.

As for the chapters, I have up to chapter 10 written already. I know how this ends, and I know the twists that are coming. Hold on folks, this is going to be one interesting ride.

Check in tomorrow (possibly later today depending on your time zone) for the next installment.

Sodas of choice to those who review, both past and present. :-P