At lunch, Kiku and Herc were late again. Herc said that he'd fallen asleep in his last class.
"I have an idea for Halloween," Kiku said not long after they'd sat down. "In Japan, there's a tradition of ghost stories called—"
"Ghost stories!" Al yelled. "I love ghost stories!"
"Er, yes . . . the tradition is called hya—"
"Aren't you scared of ghosts?" Francis asked him with a frown.
"Hyakumonogatari kaidankai. In English—"
"Yeah," Al said, waving a hand, "but only real ghosts. Ghost stories are okay."
"Let him talk!" someone exclaimed. We looked around before realizing that it was Herc who'd said it.
"Go on," he said softly to Kiku after Francis and Al stopped talking.
"Er—thank you," Kiku said. "In English, the tradition is called one hundred ghost stories. A group of people gathers in a room at night, and one hundred candles are lighted in the room. Someone will tell a ghost story, and after he is done, he blows out a candle. Everyone takes turns until all one hundred candles are out."
"That sounds awesome," Al said immediately.
"I can't make it that day," Francis said. "Sorry."
"Uh—" Gil said. "Kiku didn't even say we were gonna do it."
"I was hoping that we could," Kiku admitted. "I want to invite everyone to my house on Halloween."
Francis shrugged. "I've got something going on that day," he said.
"Right, right," Gil said, smirking. "You're just scared of ghost stories."
Francis quickly nodded. "Who wouldn't be?"
"I'm sorry, Kiku, but I'm busy that day as well," Artie said.
"Ah," Kiku said disappointedly.
"I wanna go!" I exclaimed.
"It sounds interesting," Ludwig admitted. "I'd like to go."
"Mattie, you and me are going, okay?" Gil said, holding up Matt's hand.
"Um—okay," Matt said.
"I'd like to go too," Mei said. "If my dad lets me . . ."
Al put his arm around her shoulders. "Don't worry about it, babe," he said confidently. "Just, uh—don't lie, but don't tell the truth either, y'know?"
She looked uncomfortable. "I can try . . ."
"Lovi, doesn't that sound like fun?" Toni exclaimed excitedly.
Lovi shrugged. "Sure, why the hell not?"
Kiku smiled slightly. "You can wear costumes if you want. Hercules told me that costumes are a tradition in America."
"Oh yeah, definitely," Al exclaimed.
"Mattie!" Gil said. "You, me, matching costumes, okay?"
"What? Okay . . ."
"Feliciano," Ludwig said, turning to me, "would you like to wear matching costumes as well?"
"Okay!" I said. "What are we gonna be?"
"I—I'm not sure. We'll think about it later."
"Lovi—"
"We're not fucking buying costumes," Lovi said.
Toni's face fell. "Oh . . . okay."
"Mei, you wanna do matching things?" Al said.
"Maybe not . . ." she said. "I mean, I can't think of anything we could be . . ."
"Dammit, okay," Al muttered.
"I'm sure I'll . . . think of something to wear . . ." Herc said softly.
"I have an idea for what I want to wear," Kiku admitted. "Arthur, Francis, I'm sorry that both of you can't come."
Artie shrugged. "It can't be helped, I'm afraid. To be honest, we weren't going to tell you lot, but Francis is actually visiting my house that night."
"Oh yeah?" Gil said, looking back and forth between Francis and Artie, the first of who was staring at Artie.
Artie nodded. "We wanted time to discuss the book we're going to read in English."
"You two are weirdoes," Al said cheerfully, sitting back down. I couldn't remember when he'd gotten up to throw away his lunch tray.
The bell rang and we all went to our next class.