"Jack! Jack!" Lock ran into town square to find the Pumpkin King and the Mayor walking around the fountain. There were various boxes and blueprints all around. "Jack!"
"Hold on a minute, my boy." Jack said as he scanned over a paper. "No no no, Mayor, this is all wrong. We need explosions, not fire works. And there were supposed to be the flying kind of bats, not base ball ones."
"Jack! I need to ask you something!" Lock insisted as he followed the skeleton around.
"Can't you see we're busy planning next Halloween?" The mayor asked with his nervous/sad face. "We don't have time for this."
"Now, Now. No need to get upset," Jack spoke distractedly. He had handed Lock a box labeled 'x-mas lights' and then crossed out and written 'halloween lights'. "Put that right over there, Lock. No, over near those other boxes." He pointed, almost dropping the boxes he was holding himself.
"Jack, can I please just ask you the question?" Lock asked, getting a bit annoyed.
Jack motioned for the boy to come closer and put one arm on his shoulder, the other holding a blueprint. "First, I need to ask you a question: Do you think clowns or spiders are more scary?"
Lock looked at the blueprint and then at the Pumpkin King "Spiders, I guess…. But Jack, I seriously wanted to ask you something."
Jack frowned a little "Go on then."
"How did you know you were in love with Sally?" the devil boy asked and the skeleton man's jaw dropped off on one side.
After pushing his jaw bone back into the joint he answered, "Well, my boy… I was hoping you would help me with some of the plans for next year but why don't you go talk to Sally, as you can see the Mayor needs my help and he's still a little mad at you kids for that spider joke last night…" His boney hand pointed off toward the Skelington Mansion. "Sally should be inside… when you're done talking, I could use your help."
"Alright Jack…" Lock sighed. There was a look in Jack's eye sockets that said this is not what I signed up for when Sally and I adopted Boogies Boys.
While on the long walk up the stairs to Jack's house he thought of this morning.
Lock came out of his room, yawning and stretching, his tail scratching his butt. He squinted through the morning light and saw Shock. She was sitting on the kitchen counter, wearing a dark green sweatshirt and short purple girl boxers.
"Hey, idiot." She said, a sewing needle sticking out of the corner of her mouth. Her eyes never looked up at him but her tone was sort of playful. "Happy Deathday, Lock."
"Yeah, Another year dead." He answered "Happy Deathday to you too." He watched her leave sloppy black stitch marks in the purple fabric of her dress. "Hey, I'm gonna go out for a while."
"Whatever, but Sally and Jack want us to be there for dinner by 7 o'clock." Shock said, holding her dress out and inspecting her work with a sad sigh. She dropped her hands down to her lap, the dress going with it. This was the first time she had looked at Lock all morning. "Do you want anything for breakfast?"
Lock looked into her tired eyes. "Nah, I'm fine. Thanks." That word was foreign to his mouth and they both knew it. "Uh… I'll see you later…" He scratched the back of his neck and retreated to his room. He got dressed, grabbed his mask and climbed down the rope ladder from his window.
Shock had gone to the window of the kitchen. "Hey, Stupid!" She called and he turned around "Catch!"
A small bundle hit Lock in the face, bouncing off his mask. He opened it and saw two slices of toast with black berry jam and a lollipop. "Uh, thanks!" He said the 'th' word again.
"Whatever, just be there at 7 o'clock!" She said with a laugh and closed the window. Lock looked for another moment and then ran down through the cemetery to town.
He reached the door and pulled the spider doorbell, sending a scream into the late morning sky. "Come in!" Sally called from a window, high up in the house "I'm in the study."
Lock ran through the house and found the spiral stairs that lead up to the study. When he came up through the hole in the spiral floor he saw Sally sewing a dress. "What do you think Lock?"
He looked at the dress that the sewing dummy wore. It was made of patches like Sally's only the colors were all dark purple and black and there was black lace. "It's... nice…" Lock said then added "It doesn't look your style though."
Sally laughed a warm happy laugh "It's not for me. It's Shock's Deathday present from Jack and I." Sally then made a thoughtful hum. "Hand me that ribbon there, would you dear?"
Lock grabbed the roll of black ribbon and walked over to give it to Sally. On his way over he say two little spider bows on a table. "What about these?" Lock asked holding them up.
"Perfect!" the Ragdoll chimed, grabbing the ribbon and bows and sewing the little bows onto either side of the low square collar and then wrapping the ribbon around the waist, with a bow in the back. "Perfect!" She said again happily.
Lock nodded in agreement. He then remembered why he was up here in the first place. "Sally… I asked Jack a question and he sent me up here cause he was busy… do you think I could maybe talk to you?"
"Of course." Sally put a hand on his shoulder and led him over to where two arm chairs were. She sat in one and he sat in the other. "What is it?"
"Well, how did you know you loved Jack?" Lock asked, a blush on his cheeks covered by his mask.
"Well… I guess I always knew. Ever since the Doctor put me together I had very strong feelings for Jack…" She said thoughtfully "He on the other hand took some time to notice his feelings. You know how Jack gets when he's planning a holiday, his mind can't think about anything but work. Why do you ask?"
"Well… I dunno… I guess I was just wondering…" Lock said turning away slightly. He then tried to change the subject "Has Shock mentioned anything she want's for her Deathday?"
"No, she hasn't." Sally said sadly "If she were to tell anyone it would be you."
"Well, she didn't tell me anything… All she did was call me stupid this morning and throw toast at my face…" Lock said with a defeated sigh.
"Shock threw toast at you?" Sally asked trying to suppress a laugh.
"Well, I guess it was actually her trying to make me breakfast. When I was leaving the house she called me and I turned around and she threw a package at my face… it had toast and some candy in it…" Lock told his mother figure the story.
"Well, you know how she is. It was actually pretty nice of her." This time Sally did laugh. "Hmmm. You still have two day's until the party. Why don't you just get her some black berry spider filled truffles like you do every year?"
"I want to get her something special… She would have turned 16 this year if not for that bath tub accident…" Lock said, sounding guilty.
"Well, you still have plenty of time to find her a nice sweet 16 present. Don't worry." Sally looked out of the window to town square where Jack was making big motions with his arms, trying to convey something. "Why don't you go down to the graveyard and pick some flowers for her?"
"Alright Sally," Lock said and for the third time that day "Thanks."
"It's no problem at all, I'll see you at dinner." Sally walked him out to the square.
"Lock, my boy!" Jack called out when they reached the fountain "Just who I wanted to see. Come look at these lyrics, do you think they're frightening enough? I can't think of anything that rhymes with 'Vampire'"
"Uh, try 'campfire', I'm in a bit of a hurry, I'll read the lyrics at dinner." Lock said as he did a running jump over a pile of boxes. In no time he was out of the square and in the graveyard. As he passed the dog house shaped tomb stone Zero appeared and started to follow him. He walked along the grave stones and into Sally's garden. There were some flowers there that looked dark and withered. "Perfect," He said happily and snatched a handful.
"I can't just give her flowers now, can I Zero?" Lock asked the dog and patted his head. "Hmmm… Santa is good at giving gifts. I bet he would know what to do."
Zero whined in slight disapproval but Lock ran off into the woods anyway.
Meanwhile…
"Hey, Barrel. Wake up." Shock shook his shoulder gently. After a moment she simply pushed him off of the couch. "Get up."
The young boy yawned. "Happy Deathday to you too."
"You slept through most of it. We have to go to Jack's soon and you need to get yourself cleaned up. Now." Shock said and started to fold the blanket that Barrel had been sleeping under. "Have you seen Lock? You haven't seen anything… lazy bum."
"He'll be at dinner. He wouldn't miss our Deathday." Barrel reassured her as he went off into his room to get cleaned up.
From the other room Shock shouted "Be at the manor at 7. I'll meet up with you and Lock later."
"Where are you going?" The youngest of the trio called.
Shock grabbed her hat and slid on her shoes "Shopping."
The girl skipped though the graveyard. When she came upon Zero's grave she whistled but was met with no response. She then patted her leg, "Zero. Here Boy." Still no answer from the ghost dog.
She didn't think much of it and continued her trek to town. Once in the square She tried to head off to the small shopping area but was stopped by Jack. "Shock! Could you come here?"
Shock went over to where he was. "Good afternoon, Jack. What's wrong?"
"You're good with surprises… what do you think would be most terrifying: A cat jumping out from behind a trash can or a bunch of bats swooping in from cloud cover?" The Pumpkin King asked, speaking with his hands as well.
"Why not do both one after the other? Double whammy." Shock said hitting her fist to her open palm twice.
"Brilliant." Jack said and Shock started to walk away. "Oh Shock!"
"What?" The witch asked trying not to show her growing impatience.
"Can you think of anything to rhyme with ghost?" Jack asked pointing to a blue print of a ghost that was lying around.
"Most, Boast, Host, Coast, Toast… I'm in a bit of a rush, Jack." Shock admitted "I have some shopping to do."
"Alright," Jack frowned slightly. "We can talk at dinner."
"Alright, see you at dinner." Shock agreed and ran off to the witches shop.
Once inside she looked around at the various items. There were so many strange and wonderful things for sale but she knew just what she needed. Walking up to the witch behind the counter she asked "Do you have any Bone Biscuits?"
"Fresh baked this morning, dear." The short witch answered. "How much would you like?"
"5 bags." Shock replied taking out some gold and silver pumpkin coins and laying them on the counter.
"Will that be all, dear?" The witch asked putting the bags on the counter and taking the coins and putting them into the large cash register with a loud ding.
Shock looked around the room. Suddenly she spotter something. "How much is that?"
"Oh, that's a very special piece… for you, 200 pumpkin coins." The tall witch answered almost overly sweetly.
Shock sighed as she thought about the racing broom she had been saving up for. Well, Lock's Death Day only comes once a year… "I'll take it." The girl emptied the contents of her change purse onto the counter. The tall witch handed her the new purchase and she looked at it with awe. It was a red pitchfork with a detailed design at the end of the staff like handle. "It's perfect." Shock mused. "Thank you." She called to the witches as she grabbed the cookies and ran out of the store.
"Shock!" Jack called to her.
"Sorry, Jack, I'm in a bit of a hurry. I want to talk to Sally before the boys come to dinner. Later alright?" Shock told her pseudo-father as she ran up the steps to the Skellington Manor.
"Arlight…" Jack said disappointedly and went back to looking over his plans.
Shock ran into the house. "Sally! Sally!" She called excitedly.
"Calm down, Shock darling, I hear you." She said as she came down the stairs. "Oh, How lovely. For Lock?"
"Yes," Shock nodded "He's not here yet, is he? I was hoping to borrow some wrapping paper and hide it somewhere before dinner."
"Hurry then, it's almost time for the boys to get here." Sally said with a smile as she lead the way into the sitting room.