A/N: Wow, sorry it's been a while! I haven't forgotten this story though. :)
Kaylyn could hardly remember why she had agreed to go. She just knew that she had to get out of this SUV – at all costs. Ryan was a terrible driver, as they had all discovered. But he did know the side streets to get them to Hoffman's house. Also, he knew how to drive fast. So, there were the six of them, flying along in Paul's SUV, toward certain impending doom. Hopefully they would survive to make it to Homecoming, scheduled to start in two hours.
They carefully pulled against the curb a few houses down from the house. It was already dark, at seven in the evening. Dressed in black, Ryan, Mo, Paul, Patrick, Kaylyn, and Jen slipped out of the SUV. They crept silently into the backyard of Hoffman's house. Mo slid up to the door, pulling a bobby pin from his pocket, courtesy of Kaylyn. He slid it into the lock, and expertly clicked it open. They wordlessly filed in, careful not to touch anything. Patrick led the way through the kitchen, family room, and up the stairs to the office. He had looked up the blueprints online.
The office was open, no lock on the door. They all charged in; Paul stalked to the window and closed the curtains tightly. Jen flipped on a flashlight, and began to inspect the room. There were towering bookcases filled with music. There were multiple tape and CD racks, sporting recordings of bands from nearly every year he had been at Southview. The six of them focused their eyes greedily on them. Paul found the CD player and the tape player, and they started listening.
It was Kaylyn who had the ingenious idea of running back to the vehicle to get the blank tapes they had brought. They slid them in, hit record, then hit play on the CD side and copied the information. They were playing tapes on personal CD and tape players as well. It took an hour and a half, and they still weren't anywhere close to being done. Patrick groaned. "Why don't we just bug the theater ourselves and save our ears?" He muttered. Mo's face lit up.
"That is a good idea!" he exclaimed. Patrick grinned hugely.
"I'll get right on it!" Patrick was apparently into computer stuff. Jen would have thought that they would choose Greg for all his work in the theater with lights and sound. But Patrick was nearly foaming at the mouth as they snuck carefully out of the house. They jumped into the SUV, Ryan once again driving.
Paul, Mo, and Patrick all began to strip their black clothing. Kaylyn and Jen screeched.
"Do you have to do that in the car?!" Kaylyn wailed. Mo grinned evilly.
"Yes." She and Jen turned away.
"You two should probably get changed too, you know," Paul threw in. Kaylyn gaped at him.
"NO! I am NOT changing in a car full of guys!"
Paul roared with laughter as he shrugged into his nice white shirt. "Well then change in the trunk!" Jen glared at him. The others took no notice. "TIME CHECK CLAIRE!" he yelled suddenly. Ryan groaned. They were scheduled to be at the dance in ten minutes. It took twenty to get back from Hoffman's house.
"Just drive!" Mo yelled. "Floor it!"
Jen groaned, then grabbed her dress and crawled into the trunk. She scrambled into it, pulling it on over her black clothes. She shrugged her shirt out from under the dress, and crawled back over the seat, still wearing her black pants. Kaylyn bit her lip then jumped into the trunk.
The SUV skidded into the parking lot at 6:59. The doors flew open, and five people piled out – Mo, Paul, and Patrick out one side, Jen and Kaylyn out the other. Ryan took his time exiting the driver's seat. They all looked miraculously neat and tidy for changing in a cramped car that was pushing the speed limit to the max.
Ryan straightened his tie. They all exchanged high fives, and Jen and Kaylyn ran off to find Allie, Katie, Maddy, and Tia. The remaining four took their time walking to the doors.
"Hey…Jen…are you…having fun?" Patrick asked. She laughed.
"This is great! How about you?"
He shrugged. "It… is fun. I just wanted to give you this before we left." He pulled out a bright red rose. Jen stared. She gently reached out and took it from his hands.
"Thank you, Patrick. It's beautiful…"
"I have to go. I'll see you Jenny. Remember that Halloween is this week." He was gone. Jen stood there, clutching the flower, unsure what to do next. As the last song came to an end, her friends dragged her off; she was still stuck staring after him.
Jen's alarm clock sounded at 6:00 sharp Halloween morning. She groggily turned it off and rolled over. The drumline had been at school until midnight the night before setting up. Patrick had been busy bugging Hoffman's cart, and he had done an exceptional job. The microphone could be turned on and off with the click of a remote. It was a digital recording device, so it saved onto a memory card. Also, Patrick could access it from his computer and manage the files from there. As for the school itself… well, they'd have to see how that would turn out.
Kaylyn, having left with Jen, was figuring that the school was pretty impressive. However, when she actually walked through the doors, she was nearly knocked off of her feet.
Fog swirled around her. She took a cautious step and heard something crunch under her feet: dead leaves. She wafted the fog away, and saw that the entire school floor was covered in a thick layer of leaves. She drifted over to the wall and saw "blood" streaks glistening in the foggy light. They definitely looked realistic. People were shrieking as they discovered the blood. As Kaylyn walked toward her locker, she noticed janitors bustling around, trying to clean. She stepped on something squishy.
"Oh…"
She had stepped on a "body." Turning up her nose, she continued to her locker. The pit in the commons was entirely filled with leaves. Tombstones stuck up haphazardly. A huge, realistic-looking, hairy spider was covering one of the skylights in the commons.
Jen was laughing so hard at her locker that she couldn't stand up straight. She leaned against the lockers for support. "How do they do it?!" she asked. Kaylyn shrugged. Poodles grinned as he walked over.
"We're amazing like that. Uh, I mean, someone's amazing like that." He winked at Jen. She scrunched up her face in mock anger. "What are you dressing up as for the Fall Festival Parade?"
"Um, well, I think I'm an escaped convict."
"You think?" he laughed.
"Yeah, unless I can find something else. What are you going as?"
"A mustard bottle!"
"How are you going to march with a bass drum in a mustard bottle costume?!" Jen exclaimed.
"Hey, I'm on the drumline. I'll find a way. See ya!" he walked off to class as the bell rang. Bri ran up, shaking with excitement.
"JEN!" she yelled, even though they were standing right next to each other. "You never called me to ask how Northview's homecoming was!" She was smiling very brightly.
"Oh, I'm sorry! BRI! How was homecoming with Matt?"
"It was great!" she squealed as they walked to their classes.
"Did he kiss you?" Jen asked in a straightforward tone. Bri tripped over her own feet.
"What? NO!" she cried. Jen giggled. "I mean… it would have been nice, but no."
"See you at lunch," Jen laughed.
The Fall Festival parade turned out to be absolute insanity. There were baton twirlers, a private drumline - that was pretty awesome, and – oh yeah – Northview's band. Poodles did come as a mustard bottle. Mitch was a cow. The hill they were waiting on was occasionally littered with a cry of "Milk me!" John came in a toga. Paul had rigged a kissing booth sign above his snare drum. Patrick was a beer-bellied soccer referee. Kaylyn was whirling around in a cute fifties dress. Bri had come as Hannah Montana, and Katie was marching around in a giant Daisy Duck costume. Mike was Jack Sparrow, Aaron was an Air Force pilot; Allie came in a bath robe, fuzzy pink slippers, and a white facial. Shane was a cowgirl, and Jen laughed to herself as Shane eyed Paul's kissing booth.
"Hi Jen!" Andy walked by with his friend Bridget, the first clarinet in symphonic band. She smiled and waved back. Andy was dressed as a pimp daddy, and Bridget a Hogwarts student. "We're carrying the banner!"
"Have fun!"
As the band lined up and fell into parade rest, the beginnings of the parade were filtering by. Northview joined first. Then the cadences started. Kaylyn was nervous and almost miscounted on "Latin." The first, easiest cadence! Crap. Andrew glared viciously at her. She thought she heard Paul sigh, as well. She knew what they were thinking: Stupid freshman.
Greg got a little off on "Soupin' it Up," but other than that the parade was uneventful and long.
Back at the school, the entire band was stripping their uniforms happily. Jen and Maddy were searching the band room for Maddy's hanger. Aaron handed it to them after they had been looking for 10 minutes. Jen unzipped her jacket and slipped out of it. She inhaled deeply. She loved the scent of marching uniforms. She clambered over percussion equipment, people, uniforms, other instruments and chairs to the closets in the back. She hung up her uniform in its place and put her hat on its shelf. As Jen turned to leave, Ben slipped a note into her hand and kept walking, acting as though he had not seen her at all. Jen frowned and stuck it into her pocket.
Mike gave her and Katie a ride home. Actually, his mom gave them a ride home. It was a fun ride. They turned up the radio, opened the sunroof, and sang obnoxiously. Jen could hardly keep from laughing. The wind whipped through her hair, and her friends were having a good time slamming into everything in the car as they rocked back and forth. Jen joined them, wondering if they could tip the vehicle over this way.
"Bye guys! Love you!" she yelled from her front porch.
"WE LOVE YOU TOO JEN!" they screamed from the car, then stuck themselves out of the sunroof and waved goodbye crazily. Jen laughed. She could hear Mike's mom yelling at them to sit back down. She ran inside and up to her room. Closing the door carefully, she pulled out the note.
Hey, Jen, Paul writing, along with Jeff and John. We've finished listening to the tapes and CD's we collected. There is substantial evidence that someone (wink) doesn't want authorities to know about. Most are just accidental recordings. Patrick's started collecting bugs, and so far is successful. Meet in the usual place at the usual time next Thursday.
