I do not own Twilight or its characters. Stephenie Meyer does.
Halloween
CH 10: (3rdPOV)
"This is July right?" Rose asked from the middle of the car.
"Yes," Edward answered from the front. "Why?"
"Well then is it just my imagination or was that a Halloween store that we just passed?" Rose asked looking behind her out the window.
"Nope, that really is a Halloween store," Jasper looked too.
"Isn't it a little early for something like that," Bella looked up from the map in her lap.
"That's why I asked." Rose answered turning again to lean back against her seat.
"It's never too early to shop," Alice announced from her seat. "In fact, maybe we should go back and check it out."
"Alice, there is barely enough room as it's for our things. I'm sure there will be costume shops for you to go to, closer to Halloween." Edward shook his head.
"I love Halloween. It's too bad we are too old for trick or treating. We used to have a blast collecting all the candy." Emmett smiled in fond memory.
"Yeah, accept the last time we went." Jasper grumbled.
Halloween (RPOV age 12)
We were sitting around the cafeteria eating lunch when Emmett broke the silence.
"So what is everyone going as for Halloween this year?" He asked.
"Aren't we too old for trick or treating," my brother drawled. Seriously we only go to Texas to visit our grandparent for two weeks in the summer and each time he comes back speaking with an accent for months.
"Of course not. This will be the last year I can go. I mean next year when I'm in High School it would just be wrong to go, so we have to make our last year the best." Emmett was adamant. I looked around at the others and they looked hesitant.
"Come on, what if we made it a competition?" Emmett pleaded. Alice's eyes immediately lit up in excitement. The boys also looked interested.
"What kind of competition," Alice started hopping in her seat. I rolled my eyes, she was in.
"Boys against Girls. Whoever gets the most candy wins." Emmett answered with the smile.
"I'm in. Bella," she turned to Bella first and started to pout.
"I don't know, Allie" She looked hesitant.
"Please…" Alice begged.
"Leave her alone," Edward grumbled.
"Yeah, if Bella is too chicken, leave her be," Emmett smirked. Bella narrowed her eyes and glared at him.
"Fine, I'm in." Bella announced crossing her arms in front of her chest. Everyone looked at me. Emmett's smirk was annoying me and I just wanted to wipe it off his face.
"Fine, but what are the terms." I arched my eyebrow challenging him back.
"Same as before. We win, you do our chores. If you win, we do yours." Emmett answered with a shrug.
"Agreed." I looked at the others and they all nodded.
Later that afternoon my mother took us shopping for costumes as Esme took the boys.
"These are the perfect costumes," Alice squealed pulling us over to a section. I had been looking at dead cheerleader costumes. Bella was in the clearance section.
"Look, I will be Tinkerbell. Rose will be Wendy, and, Bella, you can be Tiger Lily." Alice showed us three costumes she had picked out.
"That seems kind of lame," I frowned.
"It's not lame. It's cute. People will be more willing to hand us candy and not think we are too old if we look cute." Alice insisted.
"Alice, I'm sorry, but I can't afford this. My mom didn't give me enough," Bella looked embarrassed and pushed her glasses up her nose.
"I can take care of the difference. Please!" Alice started to whine.
"I guess," Bella said half-heartedly.
"Why do I have to be Wendy?" I asked in defeat.
"Because you are the tallest and your hair is too light to be Tiger Lily. Bella has the perfect hair for her. Since I'm the smallest it make since that I'm Tinkerbell." Alice answered.
"Fine," I sighed giving in.
That Saturday we were out roaming around the neighborhood. Alice convinced our parents to let us go around ourselves. The boys were off somewhere dressed as Hobos. So I had to give Alice credit, our costumes were cuter.
Bella stumbled on the sidewalk.
"Careful, Bella, you are suppose to be graceful." Alice told her.
"I'm trying, but it's hard to see in the dark without glasses," Bella huffed. Alice had made her take them off at the house.
"I thought you said you could see," Alice asked worriedly.
"I can see enough not to run into anything, but anything further than that tree is a blur." Bella pointed to a tree about five feet away.
"I'm sorry, next time I won't force you to take them off. I don't want you getting hurt." Alice apologized.
"Well, our bags are heavy; do you think we have beaten the boys?" Bella changed the subject as she flipped a braid over her shoulder.
"I hope so, I don't want to do Jasper's chores." I grimaced. I hated the idea that I would have to deal with garbage duty. If we won Jasper would just have to do dishes.
"How about this house," Alice paused on the sidewalk of small house. You could hear their music from here.
"We don't know who lives there," Bella shook her head.
"What is the harm, every little bit counts to beat the guys. We don't have to eat it." Alice started up the walk.
"Alice," I hissed trying to stop her. She didn't listen and continued up the walk.
"Come on, we can't let her go alone." Bella sighed and hurried after her.
We reached Alice just as she rang the doorbell. The door opened moments later.
"Trick or Treat," We sang sweetly and I instantly regretted it. In the door way was a college age guy with only a towel around his waist. His messy dark blonde hair was in a ponytail and he had a beer gut. This was certainly not a treat, I thought disgustedly.
"Well, well what do we have here? A girl in her nightie, a wild girl and a fairy. Must be my lucky night." He leered at us. Disgusting! We needed to get out of here and I could tell Bella was thinking the same thing. She had already taken a step backwards.
"Actually we are Tinkerbell, Tiger Lily and Wendy. We are trick or treating, it's Halloween." Alice announced cheerfully. I guess we should be glad she didn't tell him are real names.
"Well, I'm James, a lost boy. Why don't the three of you come in and I will show some tricks that are real treats." He winked at us. Ewwww!
"I think we should be going," Bella announced as she started to turn grabbing Alice's elbow.
"Wait, I can teach you how to be a real wild one," he grabbed Bella's wrist. With a quick movement Bella twisted out of his gripped and did a hard chop down on his arm forcing him to let go.
"You, bitch, that hurt," he screamed.
"Run!" Alice yelled. We took off running out of the yard and down the sidewalk. Just as we came to the corner three forms jumped out at us.
"Gottcha!" one of them yelled. Bella shrieked and started hitting one of them with her bag. Alice dropped her bag to jump on one of the other's back and started pounding. I took Bella's lead and started to swing.
"Ow…ow…stop, I'm sorry, Rosie." I heard a familiar voice.
"Bella, stop." Another familiar voice pleaded.
"Edward?" Bella stopped mid-swing. Edward dropped his raised arms from his cautiously.
I looked at my attacker and recognized Emmett. Alice stopped pounding.
"Jazzy?" she whispered.
"Yes, can you get down, please," he whimpered. Alice slid off and picked up her bag. There was a flash of blue lights.
"Crap, that is my dad," Bella tried to straighten her outfit. The cruiser came to a stop and Chief Swan got out.
"What is going on here, kids," he asked.
"The girls jumped us," Emmett whined.
"We did not. They jumped out at us yelling 'gottcha'. We were only defending ourselves, it was too dark to see their faces at first." I shot back.
"Boys, is that true?" Charlie asked.
"We were only hoping that they would drop their bags and run." Jasper grumbled.
"You cheaters. You were trying to steal our candy." Alice crossed her arms in front of her chest.
"Alright, alright." Chief Swan held up his hand. "Whose is this?" he pointed to the ground where there was broken eggs and toilet paper. None of us spoke.
"Well?" Chief demanded.
"It's ours. The girls had nothing to do with it." Edward spoke up.
"You three are coming with me," Chief stepped to the cruiser and opened the back door of the cruiser.
"Daddy, you aren't arresting them, are you?" Bella looked at him with wide eyes.
"Bells, you and the girls go back to the Hales. I will see you in the morning," the Chief answered.
"Yes, sir," she answered. We hurried on to my house. My mother was on the phone as we got there. She placed her hand over the receiver to speak up with us.
"Girls, upstairs, get ready for bed." She ordered in a non-argument tone.
"Do you think she knows?" Alice whispered as we started up the steps.
"We didn't do anything wrong," I hissed as I dragged her up the stairs with me faster.
We took turns showering quickly and getting into our pajamas. Alice settled with me in my queen size bed and Bella took the pull out couch.
We turned on Hocus Pocus since it was in the spirit of Halloween and a childhood favorite.
About half way into it I heard Jasper out in the hall. I paused the movie and called out to him.
"Hey, Jazz," He poked his head into room.
"Yeah," he sounded tired and he looked worn out.
"What happened? Did the Chief arrest you?" Alice asked sitting up in bed.
Jasper came into the room and sat backwards on my desk chair.
"No, but he did take us to a house up on Miller drive." Jasper started.
"So you guys did throw eggs and T.P. a house," Bella asked looking disappointed.
"No, it wasn't us. We never got that far, Edward and I were against it anyways. But this house had been hit hard with toilet paper and eggs. The guy inside is a World War II vet. He lost both his legs and is in a wheelchair. He lives alone and has no one to help him and there was no way he could clean the mess himself. He is on a fixed income and can't afford to hand out candy and people just assumed he was stingy, that's why his house is hit every year." Jasper explained looking upset.
"How horrible. We should go help him tomorrow," Bella looked teary eyed.
"We already cleaned it up. Chief made it our punishment to teach us a lesson for even thinking about doing it. Dad came and watched us since the Chief had to go back to work and Dr. C. is at the hospital." Jasper answered. "Did you know that if the egg dries on the house it's hard to get off and can discolors the house? There are spots on his house from years past." Jasper looked disgusted. I felt completely horrible too, even if we didn't do anything wrong.
"That poor guy. Do you think he will let us paint his house?" Alice asked.
"Em already offered. He feels riddled with guilt since it was his idea to do something similar to his math teacher's house. If the weather is nice we are going to paint next weekend." Jasper informed us. "Oh, and by default, you girls won. Chief and Dad weren't pleased with us scaring you girls like we did."
"I think we should call it a draw. Instead of doing our chores maybe it would be better to help this guy out with yard work." Bella spoke up. "At least that is what I'm going to ask Edward to do." She bit her lip and glanced at us.
"I agree. I think this guy could use the help more, too." I nodded. Jasper gave me a smile.
"That fine by me. I'm sure the other two won't have a problem with it." Jasper stood up.
"Well, why don't we all help? I feel guilty for beating up the guys. Sorry about that Jazz." Alice blushed.
"It's okay, Allie. I'm sure the hair you pulled out will grow back," Jasper smirked.
"I didn't pull your hair out," Alice rolled her eyes.
"I'm taking a shower. Do you girls need the bathroom first?" Jasper was being very considerate. We shook our heads and he headed for our joint bathroom instead of going back out to the hall.
"Have good night," he called.
"Night Jazz," We called in unison then broke out into giggles. He shook his head as he closed the door.
(3rd POV)
The mood was somber in the car. "Edward, loosen your grip before you break your steering wheel," Bella warned him.
"Why is it that I'm just now hearing about this James guy," he hissed. The other guys were none too pleased either.
"Nothing happened. We got away. It wasn't that big of deal," Bella shrugged.
"Not that big of a deal, Bella? He tried to pull you into his house. He could have hurt you." Edward's fist slammed down on the steering wheel. Bella stretched across and placed a hand on his arm.
"Calm down, this happened nearly six years ago. I know how to defend myself. I may be klutzy but Charlie taught me well when it comes to defense." Bella argued.
"You still should have told us." Emmett spoke up.
"Then what, allow you three to go up to his house to pick a fight. That wouldn't have solved anything. He was bigger than you guys too." Rose fired back.
"Besides the three of you freaking us out right after distracted us." Alice brought up.
"Don't pin this on us. You should have at least told the Chief," Edward was still in a foul mood.
"Alright, I think everyone needs to calm down," Jasper spoke up in loud but calm voice. "The girls are fine. Bella is right. It happened awhile ago, so getting upset will not solve anything."
"Besides, I did tell Charlie. I'm not sure what happened after that but all I know next time we went by the house a new family was living there." Bella answered.
"Couldn't you have said that before," Edward finally sighed in relief.
"I was going too but you were too upset to listen." Bella reached for his hand.
"Sorry I can't stay calm when I think about you in danger." He took her hand and gave it a gentle squeeze.
"I wonder what Mr. Jefferson will do for help now?" Alice brought up changing the subject. Every year since that Halloween the group helped take care of his yard. With the boys doing a majority of the work. The guys even hung out with him on Halloween to catch the perpetrators that hit his yard every year. Needless to say, there was not much trouble after that first year.
"I talked to Seth. He and a few of his friends will stop by when they can. Especially on Halloween." Bella answered. Talking about the son of the women that Charlie was dating.
"Good, Seth is a good kid." Emmett agreed, happy that the old vet was being well taking care of.
A/N: Not to worry Charlie delt with James appropriately. Bella just didn't know since Charlie wouldn't have shared the details with her about it.
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