October 31st, 1997

A pretty good day.

I was sitting on my couch in the living room, staring at my backpack. I had been told to wait here for a moment while my sister conversed with our mother in the kitchen. I could hear them from my spot.

"Mother, can I borrow your credit card?" she asked, in a fairly snarky voice. Not an uncommon question from my sister to our mother, I learned. But this time was for a good reason.

"Whatever for, Winter?" came the obvious reply. Usual reasons included new makeup, new shoes from eBay, or some new piece of electronics for her room. Somehow, Winter always got what she asked for. Today was different, though.

"My sister won't shut up about taking music lessons, and I need her out of my hair. I need it to put a deposit down."

I could hear our mother sighing. I flinched at the word choice from my sister, even though I knew it had to be done that way to get anything from our mother.

"Oh, don't be so mean to her. But yes, it's in my purse in the front hallway."

"Ugh, finally. I'm sick of her bothering me."

More sighing. I understand that my sister needed to put up this facade of angst and brutishness, especially with mother, but it still hurt to hear. Even if she didn't actually mean a word of it. With what anyone else would have called and uncharacteristic skip, Winter came back into the room with the little green card in hand and a smile on her face.

"There we go, kiddo." she said. I smiled back up at her with a toothy grin. "I'll call them when they open at four, alright? Now, what'd we agree on?"

I scooted over as she sat down on the couch and opened the brochure for the music school. "Uh, piano? Or guitar. No, wait, we said drums, right?"

"Hold your horses, kiddo" she said with a chuckle. "I don't think you have the time to learn all three, and I don't think I can convince mother to buy you all three instruments. Now pick one, so I can sign you up."

I perused the brochure again. I really didn't know what I wanted, I just knew that I wanted to be a better musician than Jaune. I certainly wasn't doing it because we had a competition, or anything. And certainly not because I was fiercely and aggressively competitive.

"I guess… piano" I finally decided "When do I start?"

Winter laughed quietly down at me. "You start after I sign you up and you get assigned a teacher, silly."

"Can you do that now?" I wanted in. I wanted to start now. I must learn.

"They're not even open yet!"

Curses.

"Well, can you make them open?"

"Weiss, just..." she paused to brush some of her fringe out of her face. "I know you're excited. I haven't even called yet, let alone paid. You have plenty of other things to be excited about today. Like all the candy?"

Right, the candy! I lit up like a torch. "Oh yeah! I'm gonna get so much candy tonight."

A smile. "Are you gonna share?"

No, of course not. I was going to hoard it like a chipmunk in my cheeks, never letting it out of my sight until I had eaten it all, not even stockpiling for the winter. Winter wasn't getting any, is what I was saying.

"I guess so. If I must." I lied. Like I said, my candy. "Also, before I forget, thank you for doing my makeup."

She reached over and ruffled my hair. "No problem, kiddo. You look like a princess ought to. Hey, speaking, shouldn't you be heading off now?"

I looked down at my little plastic Pokemon watch. Reading each of the little red hands individually. It was nearly four, and I had promised Jaune I would be there at quarter to. In my excitement for having been signed up for music lessons, I had dilly-dallied. Now I was late!

"Right! I have to go!" I almost squealed, jumping up from the couch. I shouldered my backpack, being as careful as I could to not damage the contents. The wig alone was a full thirty dollars, and I wanted to make sure it didn't break before the first use. "Bye, Winter!"

"Weiss, hold up a second!" I didn't have a second. "Take my phone and call me here at home when you're done, okay? I don't want you riding home in the dark."

I stumbled back over in my haste and took the little white flip-phone from her. "O-okay!"

"I'll come get you and your bike in the Catalina, okay? Go have fun with your friends, now."

She gave me a quick hug while adjusting my collar before gently pushing me towards the door. Not that I needed the push, I was already off like a light and into the garage. I impatiently slammed the garage door opener button on the wall and jumped onto my bicycle, clicking my bright pink helmet on for safety. I made sure the straps didn't touch my cheeks and rub off the concealer and copious amounts of blush that had been painted on.

With the door finally in the up position and out of my way, I kicked the kickstand up and shot off, nearly lifting the front wheel of my vibrant yellow bicycle as I raced down the driveway and onto the sidewalk with a hard left across the edge of our lawn.

As I cranked along the sidewalk avoiding the deeper cracks in the old cement, I tried my best to do a sweet wheelie. The front end only came up a few millimetres at most, but since no one was around, I counted it as a success. At the end of the sidewalk was a curb, the perfect candidate for jumping from. I pushed towards it, standing up on my pedals to create maximum acceleration. The chain on the little yellow bike groaned hard as I upshifted to increase my speed. I was prepared to fly.

"Oh wait, maybe I shouldn't..." I eased off and sat back down, gently grabbing the brake.

The bike rolled smoothly off the curb as I crossed the intersection. I wasn't up for risking it today. I had enough bicycle-related mishaps in previous years to want to have another, especially on a day like this when my appearance was paramount. Couldn't go smashing up my knees or face again. I had just taken the bandages off from where I had pulled most of the skin off my knee, and I didn't want a repeat performance of that.

One of the neighbours from up the street was out on his lawn, checking his decorations and replacing some light bulbs in the little orange pumpkin lights as I sped past in a blur of yellow. I tried to wave hello to him, but I failed. Oh well, we'd be back around in a few hours to relieve him of his candy anyways.

Gosh, living right down the street from my best friend had so many advantages, the greatest of which was not having to cross any major traffic intersections on the way over, unlike the trip west to Emmy's place. His house eventually came into view at the end of the road, fully decked out in orange and black with a plethora of carved pumpkins lining the edges of the driveway. I skidded to a stop in front of the house, careful to not tip over. There, right at the end in a little pile with three others was the one I carved the day before.

The dumb, toothy grin smiled up at me, and Russ's carved exclamation point on his pumpkin made it seem like mine was smiling with emphasis. Jaune's little skull and crossbones had been placed on Emmy's uncarved, painted pumpkin. She had refused to carve hers, so we gave her an old set of acrylic paints that Jaune had found in his basement, and she had painted her version of Van Gogh's Starry Night on the orange canvas. How nice it was, actually. She was a surprisingly good artist, even with old supplies and a pumpkin.

Remembering his code, I let myself into the wide two-car garage and parked my bike next to his mom's battered Previa. I of course shut the door as I made my way into the house and carefully stepped over Emmy's boots in the hallway. I've never seen someone, especially a nine-year-old get so worked up about having their shoes stepped on as Emmy. I kicked mine off into the tray haphazardly, bouncing into the house with my backpack in tow. There was commotion in the kitchen I could hear. Commotion without me! Absolutely unheard of.

"Hey!" I said as I burst dramatically through the door and slid to a stop on the linoleum. "You guys started without me! Why would you start without me?"

Jaune and Emmy looked up from the kitchen counter and the mass of fabric they had been mulling over. Emmy had a pin cushion in her mouth and the sleeve of Jaune's costume with Jaune's arm still in it in her hands.

"Forry" she said, spitting out the needle-filled foam strawberry. "Idiot here ripped a seam putting his blouse on, and now he won't stop fidgeting!"

"That's 'cause you keep poking me with the needle!" he said, clear evidence of pain on his face. "Stop poking me with the needle!"

"Then stop moving! Jeez, sit still or I'm gonna keep poking you!" Emmy was clearly aggravated. I sat down across from them at the counter and dropped my bag to the floor. "You're like a monkey, calm down!"

"But it hurts! You're so mean!" I had to laugh at him. It was hilarious.

"Maybe you should get smaller hands so they don't break the cuffs next time." Emmy was really digging in to him.

"Here, want me to do it?" I offered through a fit of giggles.

"No, I got it" Emmy said, dragging Jaune's arm further from me. "Don't interfere."

"I want Weiss to do it!" Jaune said, clearly holding his tears back. I felt bad for the poor guy. I know they get along and all, but Emmy's always been a little hard on him.

"I'm doing just fine Jaune, be quiet."

With a huff and a laugh, I reached across the table and grabbed Jaune's arm, pulling it out of Emmy's grasp. I took the pincushion and the needle she had been using from her hands as Jaune did his best angry pout.

"Here, let me..." I rolled up the sleeve. There were a few obvious marks where Emmy had got him, either on purpose or by accident along his wrist. Poor guy. "You stabbed him so many time, Em."

"He kept moving."

"'Cause you kept stabbing me!"

"Don't be such a baby!"

This was going in circles. And it was hilarious. As carefully as I could I rolled the sleeve back down his arm and arranged the cuff so I could fix it properly. Thankfully the needle had been threaded for me, so I lined it up with the edge of the fabric. It would have been nice to have a dummy arm to do this on instead of Jaune's actual one, but we didn't have time for that. I started a basic blind hem, crossing over on the inside of the sleeve. Unfortunately the shirt was a little on the tight side to be doing this properly, but I gave it my best shot, going very slowly.

"So is Russ here yet or is he late like usual?" I asked in a hopeless attempt at quelling Emmy's angry face.

Like magic, he popped up from the couch in the adjacent living room. "You called?"

I was, of course, surprised. Not enough to jab Jaune in the arm, but enough that I dropped the needle onto the table, unthreading it.

"Why are you here so early?" I asked, blank-faced.

He shrugged.

"I was tired of you lot arriving before me and then making me look lazy." He said, flopping his arms over the back of the couch and resting his head on them. "So I walked home with Jaune after you and Emmy left. And voila, I'm here first for once."

I was impressed. Disappointed that no fun could be made of this, but impressed by his foresight.

"Okay, okay" I said, holding my tongue in my teeth while I continued the needling of Jaune's shirt. "That's fair."

"So what are we gonna do until candy time?" Emmy asked, getting up from her stool and having a peruse through Jaune's fridge. She grabbed a juice box from the door before sitting down again with a thump.

"I thought we could order pizza and watch a movie or something," Jaune said, intensely focused on my sewing. He clearly trusted me, just not enough to leave me alone with something pointy and his arm.

"What movie?" Gosh, Emmy was intent on getting every piece of information as she could out of him today. Wasn't all of his arm blood enough? "I won't watch anything scary, like The Exorcist or anything like that."

Okay, that was fair. Jaune and Russ liked horror films to such a degree that it often took over our hang out sessions on weekends. Emmy would run away to the other room, and we would all stay and scream our little heads off. Most of the popcorn kernels that littered the space under the basement couch were from us dropping our bowls in fear.

"Nah, I was thinking more like Beetlejuice or something Halloween-y." he said, rubbing his nose. I was almost done with his sleeve, realizing my fingers were getting cramped from holding the tiny needle so tightly.

But Beetlejuice and pizza sounded good. They sounded really good.

"Can you guys wait until I finish with Jaune and get my costume on?"

Russ folded his body over the back of the couch completely and stood up from the floor. He was in his costume already, looking sharp in his pristine Hercules getup, complete with gold chest piece and gold fabric mini-skirt. His prepubescent lack of any muscular structure made his sleeveless arms even funnier in retrospect, but he did flex at us anyways. Plus, the blond-dyed hair was a good look on him too. He almost matched Jaune, actually.

In hindsight, this was probably the point that started Russ's obsession with hair dye. After this I don't really remember a time when his hair was its original dark brown except for one very specific and very jovial day. But today was a day for candy, and the dyed hair was the right fit.

"Okay, there you go." I said, finally letting go of Jaune's sleeve. He pulled away, examining it. "It's not perfect, I know. It's the best I could do with the time I had."

"Looks pretty good, actually. Thank you." He sent Emmy a glare and a pout, receiving a stuck-out tongue in response. These two, I swear. "D'you want me to order the pizza now, or wait until we're all dressed? Mom left me money in the fridge."

Right, Jaune's mother had a thing for leaving money in weird places. Last group party we had she'd left the pizza cash in the cutlery drawer by accident. I love his mom. She's just the greatest.

"I guess wait. Or no, do it while I go change. It might take me a few minutes to get into my dress." it was my turn to glare in Emmy's direction. "The only one of us to wear one tonight."

It was also my turn to receive the stuck-out tongue from the Iranian Queen. We watched her depart with a huff, grabbing her tote bag from the floor and disappearing into the bathroom. I may have been a little irate by her refusal to dress up like the rest of us. Russ was Hercules, Jaune was going to be The Prince from the original Snow White movie, and I was gonna be, well, Snow White. We had tried to get Emmy to be Megara to make the sets match, but no, she had to be someone else.

She was going to be Aladdin. Aladdin of all things. She had the whole street urchin getup and everything, complete with a stuffed Abu for her shoulder and the purple vest. The whole deal. Her mom had made it for her by hand, using some seriously expensive sheer muslin. Eh, I was sure I'd get over it soon enough when my own costume was on. With a huff, I tossed Jaune the phone from the carrier on the counter.

/…/

There was pizza. And it was good.

So good.

Much better than I was anticipating, anyways. The Milano's place in the shopping district had just delivered us two of the most excellent pizzas I had ever tasted. Maybe my bias here comes from not ever having pizza back in Germany, or possibly from the last few times us ordering from Pizza Pizza instead. Milano's had been on a whim after finding one of their flyers in the scissors drawer when I went to cut a loose thread on my dress.

Now, that's not to say that there isn't any pizza places in Germany, of course there are. It's just that we never went out to eat or ordered anything in during my brief stay there. My parents never really did that, the whole spending money unnecessarily thing. Especially on us. So now that I was here, I took every opportunity to eat as much of the round faux-Italian spaghetti-flavoured-pie as I could.

Today's order was two mediums, one being a meat and cheese only extra-protein-y special, and the other being a veggies-only boring pizza just for Emmy. Okay, not boring, required. Emmy didn't eat meat, specifically avoiding pork which made up most of the toppings on the other pizza. Leaving an entire medium pie for one person might have resulted in a gastrointestinal issue, so Russ helped her finish it during our movie.

Speaking of, Emmy had made us promise her that Beetlejuice wouldn't be scary in any way shape or form. I had of course neglected to mention the ways shapes and forms of the monsters from the Netherworld took on when terrorizing the heros. Her face was absolutely sheet white and pressed into the back of her little stuffed monkey, most humorously during the scene when Adam and Barbara Maitland stretch out their faces in an attempt to blend in with the monsters. Man, Tim Burton really had it going on in the late eighties. There was some serious cinematography to be had here. And I loved it.

By the time the movie and the pizza had been finished, six o'clock had rolled around. Already in my dress and shoulder-things, we were ready to go.

"Who wants candy?" I shouted to a chorus of three people cheering. "And who wants chocolate?"

Only Jaune cheered. Russ and Emmy weren't big fans of the stuff. Every time it was mentioned I was shocked. What kind of person doesn't like chocolate, and more importantly why am I associating with them?

"Who's ready to kick Halloween in the butt?"

More cheering.

"Alright!" I smiled. "Let's go get us some candy!"

I nearly kicked the door open into the dim evening air. Out into the night strode our four weirdos dressed in full Disney. As I bounced down the walkway, the bright orange lights from Jaune's house bathed the driveway in a dim, spooky orange glow that made the whole experience even better. The chilly air felt invigorating on my arms as I made the harsh turn at the end of the driveway and leaped over the pile of pumpkins. Jaune followed along, his purple velvet cape billowing along behind. Emmy and Russ didn't jump the pumpkins. Losers.

"Come on, hurry!" I cheered, skipping up up the first driveway, passed the many pumpkins Jaune's neighbour had lining their own walkway. The tree in the front was filled with fake spiderwebs and orange string lights. I grabbed Jaune's hand and dragged him up to the door. The huge rubber spiders weren't scary per se, but I wasn't taking any chances.

"First one, everyone!" I reached for the doorbell. "Prepare your candy sacks. We're goin' in hot."

The doorbell rang inside the house, making a super-creepy noise. I shivered, hearing the approaching footsteps. The handle clicked, and started to open with a groan of rusty hinges.

"Trick or Treat!" we all yelled.

At Austin Powers, of all people.

"Groovy costumes, kids!" he said, prepping his bowl of candy for our presented bags. Cliche, sure, but I thought the white cravat and blue velvet suit were fitting for our first house. It could only go up from here.

And you know what, it did. Every house following the first just increased in spookiness from then on. More and more animated witch dolls, skeletons, mummies. The whole shebang. And our sacks grew heavier and heavier, no laughing in the back please. By the time we reached just the end of mine and Jaune's street, we had collected probably about twenty pounds of candy each. I had considered calling my sister just to come and relieve us of the weight, but I didn't. We were strong enough to deal with it. And besides, Jaune had offered to carry my bag for me, like a gentleman. He was as sweet as the two sacks of sugar in his hands.

I remember one house in particular. It was around the back of our line of houses, still well within the arbitrary boundaries my sister had insisted we stick to, but on a corner lot. The homeowners, I think the Masons or maybe the Slevinskis, I don't remember, had made an entire haunted graveyard in their corner-lot-sized back garden, with every cliché horror movie trope present and accounted for.

I gripped my prince by the arm as we entered, the smoke machines billowing the maximum spook around our feet. Emmy didn't follow us into the backyard. She was scared.

"Oh come on, fraidy-cat" I cheered, trying to not be shooketh from my princess boots. "It's not that bad" It was that bad, I just wanted to look brave.

"I'm not going, I don't care."

"Aren't you supposed to be the prince of Arabia or something? Princes are brave and can handle a little graveyard." came the logical interjection from Russ. Yeah, what he said!

"I'm staying here and you're staying with me!" She grabbed his arm and held poor Russ back from following us in. He seemed upset, but more by being ruthlessly grabbed and not because he didn't get to go in.

I guess some of us still have reasonable fears, so I let it go at that point. Jaune and I turned back into the backyard. The spook factor was high, and I was gonna take it head on. Just because I was crushing Jaune's hand to death didn't mean I wasn't prepared.

"Alright, if they won't come, we can do this on our own." I beat my fist against my chest to assert dominance. "Right, Jaune?"

"Yes, right. We don't need them, anyways."

Of course not. Besides, with my knight in shining velvet cape, what could go wrong?

The graveyard was dark, as it was now like eight o'clock at night. There were glowing eyes all around us as we made the slow circle through the graves. Each one, surrounded by mist, spelled out the demise of people with humorous names like John Ohno and Philip Isdying. I guess that was to take some of the scary away for the kids, but the hanging bloody bodies in the trees sort of made it worse.

One of them dropped from the tree, snagging on its noose. I screamed. Piercingly loudly.

And basically jumped into Jaune's costume with him.

"What the hell is that?!" My bodyshield stayed put, whether out of compassion for me or out of fear, I'm not sure. I was sure he could feel my heartbeat through my skin, costume, wig, and eight pounds of makeup. In fact, I'm fairly certain that my sister back at my house could feel it as earth tremors.

"It's just a dummy, dummy."

I should have run him through with his own plastic sword and left him as a decoration in this yard. "Besides, we're here for candy. We can do this."

We? I calmed slightly, letting go a little, but not unlatching myself from his fingers. I was holding on like my life depended on it and I'm not ashamed to admit that. If I let go, what if he was murderized by a bunch of goblins? Or ghouls? Or worse, goblin-ghouls?! I couldn't bear the thought.

It was his turn to pull me along. How he had the gumption to do so in the circumstances, I'll never know, but I'm glad he did. When we finally made it to the end of the graveyard and to the back door of the house, we were greeted by Death himself.

Done up in full cloak and wielding a scythe larger and sharper than most industrial husking machines, the homeowner, again whose name escapes me, gestured silently to the bowl of candy placed on a plinth next to him. Above it was a sign.

You have passed the trials and tribulations of Death.

You may collect your reward and return to the mortal world.

And in that bowl? The highest, most excellent rewards imaginable. Full. Size. Candy bars. My eyes lit up. All of the spooky scary skeletons we had encountered in the last few minutes were worth it. Just for one hundred gram bars of beauty and deliciousness that was Oh Henry King Sized. Fit for a king, or even a princess in a wig and her bestie in a purple cape.

We got three each.

Suck it, Emmy and Russ.

We just won Halloween.