Spooky Times the Charm Part 2
"H-hello Carlos." Cricket smiled nervously as he held out a wobbly hand for the teen to shake. Carlos raised a brow, but shook the ten year old's hand anyway. "Nice to meet you."
"Heh, relax little dude." Carlos laughed. "I promise I don't bite." He said with a closed eyed grin.
"You know unless you hurt my sis." Carlos joked as he ruffled the top of Gabriella's hair, causing her to stick her tongue at him in retaliation.
Gabby shook her head with a laugh. "I told him about our uh, little Halloween tradition."
"Oh you did now?" Carlos snorted, looking back at Cricket. "Man, you're in for a treat, kid." Carlos gestured to Chip over his shoulder with his thumb. "I swear that jerk gives a better reaction every year."
"Heh, you don't say." Cricket chuckled uneasily. Oh this was bad. Dagnabit! Cricket didn't think he had to tell Gabriella of all people about Chip moving in with them. She wasn't even around when the whole Chip-ocalypse thing happened; still staying in Montreal at the time.
"Uh Cricket?" Cricket shook his head as he realized Gabriella was talking to him. 'Alright, alright, calm down country boy, Remember nothing is as bad as it seems.'
"So uh, you guys really prank the same guy every year?"
"Oh yeah, for three Halloweens straight now." Carlos laughed as he and Gabby nodded their heads in sync. "You know excluding last year when we all almost got eaten by sentient pumpkins, man weird year."
"Heh, wow, you guys sure are committed." Cricket started nervously playing with his hands. "But uh, doesn't pranking the same guy over and over get a little stale? Maybe you should-"
"Nah, not really." Gabby interrupted earnestly. "Not when that guy deserves it as much as he does." She said, again gesturing to Chip.
"Oh?" Cricket tilted his head.
"Yeah, trust me. His name's ChipCarlos actually used to work for him at Wholesome Foods a couple years back."
"His name's Chip and, urgh talk about a mean boss." Carlos shook his head with an annoyed sigh. "I swear he's the biggest jerk I've ever met."
Cricket cringed. They were right of course-but still.
"He was always getting onto me for the smallest thing,constantly calling me an idiot, or useless." Carlos sighed, rubbing his forehead. "I'm getting a headache just thinking about it."
Cricket hummed. Okay so that actually wasn't as bad as he was expect-
"And then he fired me for being like two minutes late to my shift the one time….at Christmas."
A stiff frown plastered itself onto Cricket's face as his eyes widened. 'Oh c'mon Chip, really?!'
"Yikes." Was all Cricket could say as he stood there awkwardly. Gabby nodded in silent agreement.
"So yeah, the next Halloween I decided to get a little payback." Carlos gestured to the stage where the judging was likely to take place. "Since he always made a huge deal about this dumb costume contest I figured it'd be funny to crash it, and uh yeah, it's kinda become our lil family tradition." Carlos finished with another chuckle.
"Yeah pretty much." Gabby added with a shrug as she tossed a random choco puff into her mouth from the nearby snack table. "Also it's like, really funny. He gets so mad."
The two siblings were already semi-giggling to themselves whilst Cricket mindlessly nodded along with a fake grin.
Okay so maybe this was as bad as it seemed.
"But uh yeah, that's the gist of it." Gabriella finished explaining the prank-just as Chip had described it in the car- before finally moving her arm off Cricket's shoulder.
"Pretty simple I know, but you're like in right?"
Cricket bit his lip. "Uh yeah totally. Sounds…great."
"Alright." Gabriella snorted.
"Urgh." Carlos suddenly groaned, squinting and crossing his arms as he stared back out over the line of costume contest entrees. "We got a problem. Look's like Chip brought some kind of body guard this year."
"Are you serious?" Gabriella came to stand beside her brother. "Urgh just great…also why is it an old lady…follow up question why is she holding a sword?"
Cricket smacked a hand against his forehead as he watched Gramma come to stand next to Chip. 'Gramma.'
He was really regretting not having Gabriella over by now. He should probably do that once this whole mess of a night was over.
"Hiding behind the elderly, pft figures." Carlos shook his head in dismay. "Alright, guess we'll have to get a little creative this year."
"Yeah creative." Gabby nodded her head in time with her brother. "Hmm-hey Cricket you got any idea-"
"Actually I just remembered I really have to use the little rodent's room." Cricket joked as he gestured towards the porta potty by the sign up line.
"Oh…okay. We'll be here." Gabriella shrugged as Cricket took a slow step back, then another, then sprinted off like there was no tomorrow.
"Ooooookay, let's try to calm down Cricket." The ten year old told himself as he rubbed the sides of his forehead.
"So your girlfriend wants to publicly humiliate your arch nemesis turned surrogate older brother, no biggie." Cricket lied to himself whilst he began pacing the limited space of the porta potty.
After all it was just a prank at the end of the day, and if anyone could bounce back from a prank it was Chip-Cricket would know-so really he didn't even know what he was freaking out about.
"Y-yeah." Cricket laughed awkwardly, before an unfortunate thought came to him. "...but," Cricket sighed. "Chip did seem awfully excited about tonight."
Urgh, just great. How the heck was he gonna fix thi-
Cricket jumped at the sudden knock against the porta potty door.
"Uh, sorry to rush you, but do you think you could wrap it up in there. I've been standing here for over twenty minutes and I'm about to-"
"Remy!" Cricket shouted, throwing open the door. He'd recognize his best bud's voice anywhere. "Thank goodness you're here I need to tell you some-"
"SorryholdthatthoughtCricket!" Remy said as he rushed past Cricket and slammed the porta potty door shut, leaving Cricket and Vasquez to awkwardly stand there.
"Phew." Remy said once he'd stepped out of the porta potty, wiping his brow as he adjusted the hat of his costume. "So uh, what was it you needed to tell me."
'Heh Remy's little John, called it.' Cricket smugly thought for half a second before reverting back to his earlier dilemma.
"Oh boy, well okay it's kind of alot ,but basically,"
Remy nonchalantly nodded his head the entire time Cricket explained everything.
"And now I don't know what to do!" Cricket cried.
Remy sighed. "Eugh, that's rough ,but uh..I don't know couldn't you just…tell?"
Cricket gasped in horror. "Remy! Have you no shame?!"
Cricket didn't give him a chance to answer. "That completely goes against the code!"
"The code?" Remy tilted his head in confusion.
"The prankster code!" Cricket elaborated. "You don't rat out fellow pranksters!"
"Ohhhhh," Remy said, rubbing his neck apologetically. "Well then…maybe Chip won't even win?"
"You haven't seen his costume have you?" Cricket asked flatly, gesturing to Chip who was still stuck in the middle of the line, sighing to the sky in exasperation next to Gramma.
"Oof, he's even wearing eyeliner." Remy winced before turning back to Cricket. "Well still, there's always a chance right?"
Cricket nodded with another sigh. "Yeah I guess so-"
The ten year old cut himself off as he and Remy looked over at the growing dispute over at the sign up table.
"I'm sorry sir." The contest worker bluntly apologized. "But, the contest rules clearly state that simply buying a costume from a store is prohibited."
"How do you even know I bought this!?" The guy up front in a very clearly paid for Barry Cuda costume grouched.
"Sir, we can see the tag sticking out." The other contest worker pointed out.
"Urgh whatever." The Barry Cuda guy huffed before storming off.
Meanwhile Chip crossed his arms as he watched. "Pft, even when I was filthy rich I never sunk so low as to pay for a costume."
A lightbulb might as well have gone off above Cricket's head because he had one heck of an idea.
"Remy, did you forget to take the tag off your costume again?"
"Hm oh no I'm sure I remembered this time-oh wait nevermind." Remy sighed as he pulled out the price tag from his collar.
Cricket nodded with a grim look. "Good…cause we 'bout to frame a man."
"Mmm, choco puffs take me away." Gloria sighed blissfully as she finally stepped away from the snack table, her plate piled high with every sweet known to mankind.
"I guess I should start heading to the sta-Oh..hello?" Gloria tilted her head as she caught side of an innocent little alley cat poking its head out from behind one of the porta potties.
"Meow." The cat's ears perked up as it stared at her.
"Aww, aren't you cute." Gloria cooed with a smile. Patrick being a bird and all, she never got the chance to have a pet cat, something she considered to be a real shame in this moment.
The cat meowed again before slinking towards her, before then rubbing its head against her leg.
"And a sweetheart too I see." Gloria sighed, as she slowly lowered a hand to pet the cat.
The cat proceeded to purr as Gloria scratched it behind the ears.
"And I'd say a sweetheart like you deserves a treat." Gloria surmised as she began looking through her haul to see if there was anything safe to feed a cat.
"Cats can have pigs and blankets right?..." Gloria shrugged a minute later and gave it to the cat anyway.
The feline didn't even hesitate before diving for the food like it was a fresh mouse.
Gloria chuckled as she watched it scarf the treat down. "Well alright, thanks for the free pets kitty I-"
Gloria had just started turning the other direction when she suddenly felt another presence rubbing itself against her leg.
It was another alley cat.
"Aw, you got a friend." Gloria laughed as she reached down to pet this one as well.
"Meow." Gloria looked up to see a third cat join the fray. "Heh, I guess friends."
The artist stiffened a second later when she heard another foreign meow, and her eyes widened as she realized a whole horde of alley cats had begun surrounding her.
And they were all, eyeing her food.
Gloria cracked a nervous grin. "Heh, now fellas-"
"Yes, finally." Chip cheered as they finally started to near the front of the line, just one more bozo in front of them.
Alice sighed beside him. "Good thing two, even my wooden ankle's aching."
"Alright next." Chip practically squealed with excitement as they walked up to the sign up table.
Chip grinned as he reached for the pen-
"Woah, woah, hold it up there buddy." One of the workers put up a hand to stop him, jerking the sign up sheet just out of his reach. "Sorry ,but we can't allow you to sign up."
"Uh, excuse me?" Chip put his hands on his hips defensively.
The other contest worker sighed. "I'm sorry sir, but we've just been informed that you in fact bought your costume instead of putting it together yourself."
"Wha-that is slander!" Chip argued, slamming his hand on the table. "And I will not have my reputation tarnished like that-any more-, who told you that?!"
"They asked to remain anonymous."
Chip scoffed as he crossed his arms. "Figures. Well did they have any proof?"
"They provided us with this tag." The contest worker explained as she handed him and Gramma the evidence.
"Okay this is clearly the tag of a Little John costume that's just had the label crossed out, also vampire is spelled wrong." Chip flatly explained as he showed them the tag.
Both workers shrugged. "Sorry nothing we can do about, rules are-"
"Well now hold on."
Chip jumped as he realized Bill, Nancy, and Tilly had come from up from behind.
Bill put a hand on Chip's shoulder as he stepped forward. "I can tell you right now Chip made this costume himself."
Chip's eyes widened.
"The cape for instance used to be my drapes, and the cravat was an old handkerchief." Bill explained.
"Also pretty certain he thieved my old dancin' shoes." Gramma grouched as she gestured to the heels Chip definitely stole from her closet. Look he was going for a certain aesthetic okay!
"Oh…well I suppose if you've got that many vouchers." The contest worker shrugged as she handed Chip back the pen and sign up sheet.
Chip couldn't help ,but smile fondly once he was finished writing his name and they were all walking towards the stage to wait for the judging line up.
"Thank ya family" Chip cooed as he wrapped Bill and Alice up in a quick hug.
Gramma scoffed. "Don't forget to gimme my shoes back when this is over booshie boy."
A/N
Author: writes a Halloween oneshot, doesn't update til after thanksgiving.
I know y'all I'm terrible. I will try my best to finish this story before December tho. Anyways I still hope this was a fun read. Also I'm aware there's a good chance Gabriella knows Alice in the show, but since they never had a full on meeting I'mma just ignore that possible canon say they haven't for the sake of the fic : P
Also also, real quick cause I just wanted to ask. I'm thinking of maybe releasing a fic that's just a bunch of Consequnces drabbles that I never got the chance to implement into the main oneshots, like they'd take place at different points in the series and they wouldn't be connected like at all. Idk is that something y'all would be interested in? Be sure to let me know. Any who, thanks for reading! See you next update.