I've told someone that there won't be an update this week, but since I can't sleep (it's four in the morning) due to the excitement about leaving for camp and caffeine in my tea, I guess I might as well as cough the October thingy up right now.

Hmm… so many people want to see Mulder's birthday for October, but I'm way too lazy to throw him an early party right now, so I'm just going use Halloween. However, I may throw a party just for him when his birthday comes… I've been doing that for at least four years and I don't see how been a junior should make the tradition stop.

***

Beyond Yesterday

One morning I woke up early because the room was too cold; we forgot to close the window last night. I looked over at Melissa's side of the room; she had curled herself up, like the cocoon of a butterfly. I slipped out of my bed to close the window.

My hands stopped as I glanced up and down the street; the trees planted along the street had turned to the shades of red and gold just overnight. I rubbed my eyes and breathed in the cold air, and shut the window. It couldn't be. It took time. I must have ignored it, trying to sort everything out, including the shock created by Anna's abrupt decision of switching her schedule.

Anna's face came to mind; she hadn't been sitting with her senior partner for the past week. She had been sitting with Mulder and I, always squeezing in between us, asking him questions that I was positive she could had answered on her own.

My alarm clock started beeping, and it pushed Anna out of my mind. Melissa was growling under her blanket; she had stayed up until two in the morning for her chemistry homework. I turned off the alarm clock, and tiptoed down the hall and into the bathroom to start my daily routine.

***

Mom was the only other person in the kitchen when I walked in for breakfast. "Good morning, Mom," I greeted, slinging my bag onto a chair.

 "'Morning Dana," she smiled, and handed me my toast and juice. "Have you seen the trees outside?"

I nodded as I sipped my juice. "It was gorgeous."

 "Yes, and which reminds me… Halloween is just a little more than two weeks away."

 "So soon?"

 "Yes. I think we should go get a few pumpkins and you kids can carve out the lantern. Oh, and about your trick-or-treating costume…"

 "Mom!" I protested, laughing. "I'm too old for that!"

 "Really? I didn't notice that. But I think Melissa is planning on going this year; I heard her discussing it with her friend on the phone."

 "They are planning on going to a party, and so are Bill and Charlie," I replied, munching on my toast. "I'm the only one who's not going to anyone's party; I'm way too unpopular for that."

 "Don't be silly, sweetheart;" Mom looked alarmed as she studied my face over the rim or her coffee cup. "You have your own friends. What about Anna? You two never go anywhere without each other."

 "I'm afraid I'll have to cross her off my tiny list of friends," I said gloomily, grabbing the second piece of toast and buttering it. "She's been trying to squeeze in between me and Mulder for the past week and half. It seems like she wants to be his friend rather than mine."

 "Mulder?" Now Mom's wearing the typical Scully family expression: the cocked eyebrow. "Who's this Mulder? You've never talked about him."

 "He's my senior partner during the welcoming ceremony—I don't think Bill likes him too much so I've been trying to avoid bringing up his name," I explained.

 "Oh," Mom looked thoughtful as she tried to process everything through her mind, which was always organized, like Dad's. "So my dear little girl, is this… is this jealousy I'm sensing?"

 "No way!" I exclaimed without thinking. But the feeling that came up every time Anna was around was so foreign to me that I was never able to identify it. Could it really be jealousy? But then, what made me jealous? What's so wrong about sharing a new friend with my best friend for the past three years?

I could hear my brothers and sister stumbling down the stairway, pushing and hissing at each other; I could just see Melissa making faces to Bill while he tried to smack her in the shoulders, but missed as usual. Chaos was about to ensue in the kitchen, and I decided that it was time for me to leave.

 "I'll see you later Mom," I called out as I grabbed my bag and darted out of the back door.

***

 "Hey Dana! Over here!"

I followed the source of the voice, and found Mulder standing next to a car that was clearly fresh out of the showroom. "How do you like my birthday present from my parents?"

 "It's your birthday?!"

 "Yeah. And don't say that you forgot it because I've never mentioned it. Anyway, what do you think of it."

 "It's not your car," I commented, studying the vehicle. "Unless your mother picked it."

 "Oh yeah? And what makes you think that way?"

 "This is way too small for a six feet tall guy, Mulder. Besides, you're standing on the wrong side of the car."

 "Another good observer," a female voice said from within the car. It was followed by the owner of the voice herself. My heart was ready to sink again when Mulder's voice cut in.

 "Dana, this is Ellie Rosenberg, my next door neighbor. Ellie, this is Dana Scully, my freshmen partner from the ceremony; she is smart as hell, by the way."

 "Which will definitely come in handy if she decides to join us in math team or Science Olympiad," Ellie said, and we shook hands; her hand was tiny but full of strength. "Nice meeting you, Dana. You've got to join us in both teams—we really could use another brilliant mind. Last year we didn't even make it to the regional in either event! That was such a shame and disappointment." And then she turned to Mulder and said, "Gotta run now; Mrs. Jenson wants our poster before class and I don't know why, but I'll deliver it to her. You want a ride home?"

 "Yeah. Thanks," Mulder replied. He watched her walking into the building, and then turned to me. "She decided to give me a luxury ride because it's my birthday and because my car absolutely refused to start this morning."

 "Oh, too bad for you," I said, and I added quickly, "Your car must've hated you."

 "It hated everyone in the family," he commented casually. "It refuses to start on the birthday of the person who's planning on driving it."

Except your sister, I thought. The damned car never gets to know her because she disappeared.

Anna was no where in sight and I was grateful. My morning was totally tangled up.

 "So, what are you planning on doing for Halloween?" I asked.

 "Nothing," he replied, stopping at his locker.

 "Nothing? Absolutely nothing? No parties?"

 "Not every senior loves parties. I don't. Ellie isn't too keen on partying either. But she's going trick-or-treating with her younger siblings, so she's got something to do."

 "You can go trick-or-treating too," I blurted, surprised by the slight traces of sadness, maybe even sorrow, in his tone.

 "Me?" he laughed dryly. "Remember, Ellie is short enough to be mistaken for an eighth grader, with costumes and makeup on. There's no way people would mistaken a six feet tall guy for an eighth grader."

 "You can say that you've got big bones," I said stubbornly.

 "Sure, big bones."

 "Hey, have you ever gone trick-or-treating as a kid?"

 "Yeah sure. I made up a silly song when I was nine and I'd go knock on the door, then me and my—"

He stopped abruptly; he just let the sentence hanging there, unfinished. But I knew what he was going to say. He and his sister used to sing the song he made up when they went trick-or-treating together.

I tried to say something, but the bell rang. He turned away from me to close his locker. "See you fifth period," he said without looking back at me.

 "Yeah," I replied, my voice heavy. "See you."

***

 "Mom, look at this one!" Charlie pointed at a pumpkin on the ground. "What do you think?"

It's just a week from Halloween and Mom suggested that we make jack-o-lanterns, just like all the years before. So here we are, out in the chilly October wind on a farm, trying to pick out the perfect pumpkins, just like the other families surrounding us.

 "It looks good, Charlie," Mom bent down to take a good look at the pumpkin. "The shape's just right. Now we just need one more…"

 "Mom, Mom!" Melissa shouted above the wind, trying to lift a pumpkin that looked heavy. "What about this one? Can I smash it on Bill's head? Please?"

 "Melissa!" Mom laughed. Charlie and I followed. Bill glared at Melissa and she glared back. We laughed harder.

 "Now cut it out, both of you," Mom said. "Dana, you can pick the last one."

 "I've already picked," I said. "Melissa, you pick. You're the only person who hasn't made a choice so far."

 "It'd be pointless to pick one if Mom won't let me smash it on Bill's head," Melissa replied, tucking loose strands of hair behind her ear.

This time everyone laughed, including Bill.

***

Halloween night. It's my first Halloween I spent at home ever since I was six, as Mom stated. I've got no parties to go to, and I've already declared that I was too old for trick-or-treating.

Melissa, Charlie and Bill were all at parties—different ones, of course. Anna—she had officially started going out with her partner from the welcoming ceremony five days ago, so I guess Mulder was safe for now—was at a senior party, possibly the one that Bill was attending. Her current boyfriend was quite close to Bill.

I was watching TV when the doorbell rang for the first time in the evening. "I'll get it!" I yelled in the direction of the kitchen, and grabbed the large bowl of colorful candies set on the side table.

I opened the door, expecting a crowd of kids holding up their basket, but instead, I heard a familiar voice singing:

 "We paint our faces black, so you can't see our faces

So you can't tell our mommy, if we did play tricks on you.

But it's kinda pointless, since we come out in the dark,

And you won't see us, unless you're a bat.

So give us treats, if you don't want your house painted black!"

I nearly dropped the bowl of candies right on the spot, and the familiar, heartily laughter echoes in my ears.

 "Mulder!" I screeched, placing the bowl down on a chair next to the door. "What are you doing here?" Now I realized that he had black paints on his face, and a few drops of fake blood on the corners of his mouth, and I couldn't help but to scream with laughter.

 "Hey it's your idea, remember?" he said, pulling out a tissue from his coat pocket and wiped off the makeup. "You said I'd pass for an eighth grader who just has big bones."

 "What about—what about that song?" I was laughing so hard I had to gasp for air.

He shrugged. "That's what I made up when I was nine. Told you it was silly."

 "Sure is," I heard footsteps behind me, and I turned around to find my mom standing in the hall.

 "Is everything alright, Dana?" and then she spotted Mulder. "Hello there. I trust that you're not here for trick-or-treating?"

I burst out laughing again. "Mom, this is Fox Mulder. He had nowhere to go, so I told him that he could come over and scare kids away if they get too annoying."

 "Oh, that's great," Mom said, smiling. "The pumpkin pies are ready, by the way. Would you like to have some, Fox?"

I turned to see Mulder's reaction, but he was grinning. "I'd love to, Mrs. Scully."

 "Wonderful! Come on in, then. You can't eat standing in the doorway."

Mom disappeared into the kitchen and I picked up the bowl and let Mulder come in. "You didn't seem to mind my mom calling you by your first name."

 "She's a nice person."

 "Hey, are you suggesting that I'm not nice enough?" I joked, plopping myself down on the living room couch.

 "It's different," he stared at the TV monitor. "By the way, do you believe in the existence of ghosts and zombies?"

I picked a candy out of the bowl and unwrap it, popping the sweet fragment into my mouth. "We can always take a trip to the cemetery."

He grinned, helping himself to a candy. "Sure, but I don't think your brother is going to like that."

 "Don't mind Bill. His brain parts usually refuse to function at the same time."

We both laughed, and turned our attention to the movie, in which a zombie was chasing a girl through a cemetery.

This was going to be the best Halloween ever.

***

YAY! I coughed out the whole thing in two hours! That's a record for me! But I had the story board ready to go, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised.

Again, thanks for reading. Now, REVIEW! It's an order from your supreme conspirators! No, just kidding. But reviews and constructive criticism are always welcome and appreciated.

AND OFF TO CAMP I GO! (Disappearing into a cloud of smoke)