A/N: Alex/Olivia fluff with a hint of spookiness because tis the season. I hope you enjoy it and thanks for reading. :)

Olivia's first crush was unexpected. Unlike her friends who were already in relationships, sixteen-year-old Olivia had yet to hold hands with a girl, let alone kiss one. When her friends were on dates, Olivia had sports and school, and even her new job to keep her busy. She hadn't intended on being paid to offer private coaching sessions to elementary school-aged girls, but when word spread among the softball moms in her hometown that a six-year-old she coached made the all-star team in her first season, Olivia found herself with a full calendar and several clients. One client in particular, Emily Cabot, a rambunctious eight-year-old, was always picked up by her older sister instead of her parents. The first time was because Mrs. Cabot had to take her son to an out-of-town soccer tournament and Mr. Cabot was working late, but soon it became a routine for Mrs. Cabot to drop Emily off at the field and Emily's older sister Alex to arrive an hour later to pick her up. Unlike the moms who usually showed up in head-to-toe Lululemon workout clothes or jeans and a sweater, Alex's ensembles went from jeans and a t-shirt on the first day she picked up Emily to skirts, dresses, and heels as time passed. It was far from appropriate attire for a softball field, but Olivia had a feeling Alex's choice of clothing was meant entirely for her. While at home, Olivia's mind would shift to thinking about Alex's shiny, blonde hair, the perfectly applied pink lipstick on the soft lips that she dreamed of kissing, and the way her legs looked in her skirts and dresses. That five or ten minutes that she'd talk to Alex after Emily's lessons soon became the highlight of her week and, in that short time, she started to feel something she had never felt before.

Four months had passed since the day she first talked to her and, during those four months of short conversations, Olivia learned that Alex was the same age as her, went to her rival high school across town, was involved in Mock Trial and the debate team at her school, and was taking four AP classes. When she found out about Alex's demanding course load and extracurricular activities, it dawned on Olivia that Alex wasn't picking up her sister and hanging out at the softball field for lack of anything better to do. It may have taken her four months, but Olivia had finally gotten the hint and, when Alex showed up the following week with a Starbucks drink for her with her pink lipstick print on the cup and her phone number on the label, there was no more denying her intentions.

Olivia asked her out right then and there and, although she could have had her first date with her first actual crush months ago had she just paid attention to her signals, she was still grateful that Alex had made that bold move.

When she pulled into the Cabot's driveway, she felt as if she were in a neighborhood straight out of some teenage girl's autumn blog. It was only September, but there were wooden signs on the front porches of their neighbor's houses with the words 'Happy fall y'all' and 'Pumpkin spice season' painted on them in typical autumn colors. The Cabot house was no different and it made Olivia smile to see the cute homemade autumn and Halloween decorations that she assumed Mrs. Cabot or maybe even Alex had found on Pinterest.

Olivia pulled down the sunvisor in her car and checked her makeup in the mirror. The drive to Alex's house was only ten minutes from her own, but she knew she couldn't be too careful. She made sure her mascara and lipgloss hadn't smudged and her ponytail and bangs didn't have a strand of hair out of place. She had wanted to wear some jeggings and a nice shirt, but her grandparents insisted on her wearing a dress for her first date. The only dress she owned was a mint green summer dress with flowers on it that she bought to wear for her grandparents' anniversary that past July. The dress was a thin material and the hem was about six inches above her knees. It wasn't the most ideal item of clothing for a cool September night, so Olivia put her denim jacket on over it.

She nervously walked to the front door, hoping it would be Alex that answered so they could quickly leave, but much to her disappointment Mr. Cabot answered the door and insisted she come in.

"I didn't know you do house calls, Champ," Mr. Cabot said as he led her to the living room. "Isn't it hard to play in a dress?"

Olivia sat down on the sofa. "I'm－I'm not here for Emily, sir," she said nervously.

Mr. Cabot tried not to laugh. "I'm just giving you a hard time. I know you're here for Alex and I know that because she hasn't stopped talking about you. Neither has Emily. With her, it's always 'Olivia taught me this' or 'Olivia taught me that.' She's the cleanup hitter on her team because of you. Of course, with Alex, it's always about－well, let's just say she's smitten with you."

Before Olivia could ask him what exactly Alex had said about her, she heard Alex coming down the stairs with Mrs. Cabot following behind her. Unlike the skirts and dresses she had worn over the summer, Alex was in what Olivia considered typical autumn girl attire: jeggings, brown boots, and a cream colored sweater. The only thing missing was the obligatory pumpkin spice latte. As much as that look annoyed her when she saw it online, on Alex she found it irresistible.

"Gregory, you better not have said anything to embarrass our daughter," Mrs. Cabot said jokingly.

"I was on my best behavior," Mr. Cabot insisted.

Olivia debated hugging Alex when she saw her or commenting on how beautiful she looked, but with both of Alex's parents there, she decided against it. When Alex sat next to her on the couch, Olivia felt her heart start to race.

"I'm trusting you'll have her back by ten," Mr. Cabot said to Olivia from his seat across from her.

"Ten?" Alex asked in disbelief. "Dad, it's already seven o'clock."

"You said you're just going to Starbucks," Mr. Cabot pointed out. "I think three hours is a suitable amount of time."

"I also said we're going to the movies," Alex reminded him. "The movie starts at 8:15 and ends around ten and I was hoping to spend some time with Olivia in her car."

Olivia had an idea what those last few words probably sounded like to Mr. Cabot, so she decided to intervene. "If it'll make you feel better, I can have her back by ten. I want you to know that your daughter is going on a date with a girl you can trust."

"I like this kid," Mr. Cabot said to his wife. "Tell you what, Alex. I want you and Olivia here as soon as the movie ends, but Olivia, you don't have to go home right away. You're welcomed to hang out here in the living room or use the bonfire pit in the backyard. We'll give you girls your privacy. I'd just feel better knowing you're here and safe instead of driving around late at night."

"Deal," Olivia smiled at him. Her grandparents－the type of Boomers who still held on to their '60s flowerchild ideologies－encouraged Olivia to be independent and think for herself. They didn't have a strict curfew for her or any curfew for that matter as long as she checked in every couple of hours and didn't give them any reason not to trust her. She couldn't imagine what it would be like to have strict parents, but having Alex home by ten was a small price to pay to stay in Mr. Cabot's good graces.

"How long have you had your license, Champ?" Mr. Cabot's tone of voice may have been friendly, but Olivia felt as if an interrogation was coming on.

"Seven months," Olivia responded. "I took the test on my 16th birthday and passed on my very first try."

"So did Alex," Mrs. Cabot said, proudly. "She turned sixteen in May and passed her test on the first try. I think when she found out how adorable Emily's coach was, she was even more motivated to pass so she could pick her up and see you."

"Mom," Alex covered her face with her hands.

"What kind of car do you drive?" Mr. Cabot asked. The interrogation may have continued but Olivia was grateful for a topic of conversation that wasn't going to embarrass Alex.

"Civic Type R," Olivia responded. Her car was her pride and joy and she couldn't help but talk about it every time she had the opportunity. "My grandparents gave me the down payment and signed for it for my 16th birthday, but I'm making the rest of the payments with my own money. It can go 0-60 in 5.4 seconds and It's bright blue. The same color as Alex's eyes."

Mr. Cabot leaned forward in his seat. "So you expect me to let my daughter get in the car with a driver who still has her junior driver's license because she's under 18 and－and, to top it off－this sixteen-year-old driver has a car that's practically a Hot Wheels race car."

Mrs. Cabot laughed. "Olivia, he's just trying to instill some fear in you because he's not ready to let his little girl start dating."

"And I'm at the age where－if I were driving a sports car, it wouldn't be cool anymore. I'd just look like all the other middle-aged guys out there trying to recapture their youth." Mr. Cabot got up from his seat and motioned for the girls to stand up. "Go on. I've already kept you girls here for 15 minutes. Go enjoy your fast car and your youth and make sure you keep your hands off of my daughter."

"Gregory!" Mrs. Cabot playfully smacked his arm.

"Dad!" Alex said and then mouthed the words 'I'm sorry' to Olivia.

Olivia laughed, expecting him to say that he was just kidding about the 'hands off my daughter' part, but when those words never came out of his mouth, Olivia took it as their cue to get out of there. "Yes, Mr. Cabot...sir."

Alex cupped Olivia's hand. "Come on, Olivia. Let's get out of here."

Mr. Cabot narrowed his eyes at his daughter, hoping to instill some fear in the two girls. "What did I just say about touching?"

Olivia had no intention of doing anything that would upset Alex's mom and dad or make them think that she had anything in mind that wasn't completely innocent. If the touch of Alex's hand was overwhelming for her, she could only imagine what kissing her－or anything else for that matter－would make her feel.

Alex held onto Olivia's hand as they walked over to her car－hands cupped, not quite ready for fingers laced. When they approached her car, Olivia remembered what her grandfather had taught her about chivalry and opening the car door for her date.

"I don't want to go to the movies," Alex said before Olivia could even start the car.

"Is it something your dad said?" Olivia asked. "If you're worried about your curfew, we could come back here after Starbucks. I don't want you to get in trouble."

"It's not that," Alex insisted. She tucked a strand of hair behind Olivia's ear that had just come loose from her ponytail. "I'm on a date with a beautiful girl that I've had a crush on for months and I don't want to spend most of it in a dark movie theater where I can't even face you or talk to you."

"We can go anywhere you want," Olivia told her, although she suddenly wanted nothing more than to spend the rest of their date just kissing her.

"Starbucks is fine," Alex smiled at her. "I have something for you and I hope you don't think it's lame."

"Nothing you give me could ever be lame," Olivia insisted. She didn't know where she got the nerve, but she held Alex's hand up to her lips and placed a delicate kiss on her hand, hoping Alex wouldn't think she was being too forward. She noticed a sticky lip gloss print on the back of Alex's hand. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be. Hold out your hands and close your eyes."

Olivia heard the sound of Alex unzipping her purse. She wasn't sure what to expect, but she couldn't help smiling when she felt a round, plush toy in the palms of her hands. "Is this a plush softball?"

"Olivia," Alex groaned. "You weren't supposed to guess, but since you guessed right you can open your eyes." Olivia opened her eyes to find a plush softball with her name embroidered on it in blue letters. "I made it last week. As you probably noticed from all the autumn decorations inside my house, my mom is really into crafting and she taught me how to use her sewing machine. I was going to have Emily give it to you and pretend it was from her, but my mom told me to throw caution to the wind and give it to you myself."

"I love it!"

"You don't have to say that."

"Really, I do." And she did love it. Had she been in an '80s teen movie, it would have been the moment when she asked Alex to be her girlfriend, but instead she was in the real world and she felt as if a hug would be more appropriate. The smell of Alex's perfume and the feeling of her arms wrapped around her filled her with a sense of comfort that she had never felt before. "This is the sweetest thing anyone has ever done for me and you're the sweetest and most beautiful girl."

Alex grabbed Olivia's hand and laced her fingers with hers. "You are the sweetest and most beautiful girl and, with every single one of the thousand text messages we've sent each other since I gave you my phone number, I liked you even more."

It was eight o'clock by the time they sat down at a table with their drinks. With only two hours left until Alex had to be home, the girls were content to just spend the rest of their time talking to each other, that is, until they were interrupted by a girl sneaking up behind Olivia and covering Olivia's eyes with her hands.

"Guess who!" she said to Olivia. She knew she was trying to be discreet, but her best friend's accent and thin fingers were a dead giveaway.

"Abigail Shianne Carmichael."

"Olivia Margaret Benson," Abbie said as she removed her hands from Olivia's eyes. She had hoped her best friend was just saying hello before getting her own table, but much to her chagrin Abbie pulled up a chair in between them and her girlfriend Connie brought one over for herself.

Connie sat down in the chair she placed next to Alex. "Liv, you were right. She's gorgeous."

"Alex, this is my best friend Abbie and her girlfriend Connie, although I'm not sure why they're here because this isn't a double date."

Eight years ago, Abbie had started out as Olivia's adversary. The two of them competed over everything two third-grade tomboys could compete over: who could climb to the top of the jungle gym the fastest, who could kick the farthest in kickball, and who could run the fastest in the relay races. Sometimes Olivia won, sometimes Abbie won, but the competition between them didn't end until one of the bullies in their class insisted that no girl could beat him in dodgeball. There may have been ten other kids in the middle of the circle, but Abbie and Olivia spent the rest of their thirty-minute P.E. class period pelting the class bully with a rubber dodgeball every time the opportunity arose. It was in that moment that the two of them realized it was better to join forces than compete with each other and they had been best friends ever since.

"We were in the area," Abbie said nonchalantly.

"We really were," Connie insisted. "We were about to go to Coldstone when I saw your story on Instagram. You tagged the pic with your location."

Abbie's girlfriend Connie Rubirosa was what Olivia considered a social media addict. She was beautiful and a cheerleader, but her instagram account was no different from any other high school girl's account until she posted a picture of herself in a bikini and tagged the location of the resort her family was staying at during their summer vacation. The picture received more likes and attracted more followers than she had expected and, by the end of the summer and after dozens of additional pictures of her in a bikini and in her summer clothes, her account had grown from 500 followers which mainly consisted of her friends from her new school and people she knew at her old high school in LA to nearly 100,000. Olivia was uneasy about the fact that so many people－some maybe even grown men－were looking at pictures of a scantily clad teenage girl, but there was no telling that to Connie or any other girl Olivia knew who posted similar pictures. She and Connie didn't get off on the right foot when she first moved from LA to their small suburb in New York when they were sophomores, but ever since she started dating Abbie the previous month, Connie had gone from hanging out with only cheerleaders and the rest of the popular crowd to spending her lunch period and weekends with Abbie and being more comfortable with her true self. Although it had only been a month since the two of them started dating, Olivia couldn't imagine anyone else making her best friend so happy.

"Not exactly discreet about being on your first date, are you, Olive?" Abbie teased. "And why are you in a dress? Did somebody die?"

"Forgive my girlfriend," Connie said as she scrolled through an app on her phone. "We didn't intend on crashing your date, but it's opening night at The Haunted Asylum and there's still tickets left for the nine o'clock time slot and we wanted to know if you two want to go with us. I texted Casey and she's going to meet us there, but we have to leave soon if we want to make it in time."

The Haunted Asylum wasn't actually haunted nor was it even an actual asylum; rather, it was a Halloween attraction that was set up every September and October in a rural town about twenty miles outside of their suburb. Going through the asylum was practically a rite of passage for teenagers in the surrounding areas and, now that they were sixteen, Abbie and Olivia wanted nothing more than to experience it for themselves. What Olivia hadn't counted on was that opportunity interrupting her date with Alex.

"Alex has to be home by ten," Olivia pointed out. "And The Haunted Asylum isn't exactly the most romantic first date."

"And Starbucks is?" Abbie asked her. "Besides, you haven't even asked Alex if she wants to go."

"I don't mind going," Alex told Olivia. "My best friend Serena has been wanting to go and, if Serena is there and your friends are there, then it's technically a group outing. My dad's curfew rules are much more lenient when it comes to group outings."

"Getting your dad on a technicality." Abbie pulled out her phone so she could navigate to The Haunted Asylum's website. "I like this girl, Olive. I'll get six tickets and you guys can just Venmo me whenever. Alex, tell your friend Serena to meet us there."

Olivia was uneasy about Alex telling her dad that it was now a group outing. She prided herself on being responsible and honest, especially because Mr. and Mrs. Cabot had been so kind to her from the moment she started coaching Emily.

"I couldn't care less about going to some haunted house," Alex said as the two of them walked hand-in-hand to Olivia's car. "I just wanted an excuse to extend my curfew. We'll go through this haunted house, our friends will go to the concession stands or the dance floor afterward and that's when you and I can sneak off somewhere, just the two of us."

Hearing those words come out of Alex's mouth sent Olivia's mind racing. Okay, maybe I can go through with this.

Olivia gently squeezed Alex's hand. "If you get scared, I'll protect you."

"You're in a dress and ballet flats," Alex teased. "If anything, I'll protect you."