We made it back home—home, meaning Area 52— the following afternoon, exhausted but happy to be back. The following afternoon, I knew we had been gone for a couple of weeks, but had no idea what day it was. While everyone was relaxing or taking a nap, I wandered over to the calendar on the left wall next to the entrance to Insecto's flying arena.

"Billie!" I heard B.O.B. call. He arrived over to where I was. "Whatcha doin'?"

"Looking at the calendar." I responded.

It was a decent stereotypical calendar, with nature scenes or national monuments, only it was twenty feet long. It really reminded me of the calendar you'd get in the mail at the end of the year from your realtor or real estate company. You know, with the realtor's picture or company's logo in the middle so you see it every month. It was October's picture of some plain yet beautiful beach in Oregon, and in the middle of the calendar was a picture of President Hathaway, whose only reason to stay in office after 2012 was hiring us to save the world, and the national motto, "In Monsters we Trust."

Thankfully, the staff checks off every day we aren't there to do so. "Let's see…" I mumbled. "29th…30th…31…" My eyes shot open. "You guys! You guys!" B.O.B. screamed.

"What? What is it?" The older monsters, meaning Susan, Doc, and Link, asked, each darting from their cells.

"Dudes, aren't you blind?" B.O.B. gawked. "It's Halloween!"

"Kid, don't scare us like that." Link growled. Elijah crawled out of his cell.

"Halloween? " He repeated. "I know Liv used to tell me all about it. It sounds like fun."

"Oh, buddy, you bet it is." Link said, rubbing his large hand on top of the black shock of hair. "Scaring people, getting candy…you know what? You'd make the perfect werewolf. All we'd need is a slightly shredded jacket and pants."

"Yeah, awesome idea, Link!" B.O.B. commented. "You'd know who'd make a great Lady GaGa for tonight?" We all gave him a weird look.

"Please, don't say it…" Doc mumbled, face palming (make that side-of-your-eye palming).

"Phyllis!" Susan immediately covered the blob's mouth with her mouth.

"Shush it, B.O.B." She whispered. "We don't want her to hear that."

"Heard it!" Phyllis' voice called from her cell. The humanoid monster stalked towards us. "So who exactly is this GaGa?"

"Uh…" B.O.B. grabbed the Monster album from Link's CD stand next to the boom box and showed it to her. She didn't responded, a lip raised in disgust as she handed him back the CD and walked away. "I guess that means 'no,' huh?" B.O.B. sighed.

"It's okay, buddy." I told him. "If you want, I can be your Lady."

No one paid attention as Liv and Monger entered through the door, arm in arm. Not staring at us, but giving each other that lovers look. Link had a worried look on his face, and B.O.B. and I looked over at him.

"What're you looking at?" The fish man grumbled. B.O.B. and I smiled at each other.

"Tee hee!" I said.

"That's too thoughtful of you, General." Liv said, fluttering away from the military man's arm. "And you'll be there tonight with us at the Murphy's place?"

"Yes, ma'am." Monger replied. "I'll do my best."

"Alright, then I 'll see you later on tonight,…" She bent by his ear and whispered something. Monger wiped off the proud smile on his face and gave us the stern Monger poker face.

"Be thankful y'all have the night off, monsters," He told us. "Ginormica's family has invited you over to their annual Halloween shindig. Invisoline, Coyosapien, Electrill…let me know what costumes y'all would like for tonight."

"What about Liv?" Phyllis asked, arms crossing.

"That's been figured out." Monger replied before turning around and leaving. "And here, Missie, it's pronounced Faytale."

"Well, that's a little something." Elijah retorted at Liv. "What did you do?"

"He just brought me flowers for my cell and gave me a little invitation." Liv said, her cheeks a nice red.

"You guys didn't do anything, you know…" Link asked, uncertain and apprehensive. "Sensual?"

"No, of course not." Liv replied, fluttering toward her surrogate son.

"Good." Phyllis grumbled. "'Cause if he ever knocked you up, I'd kill him."

"Kill him?" Doc repeated. "He's our employer, Phyllis. You'd be in a lot of trouble if you murdered him."

"Who cares if he's the head honcho, garbage gut?" She raged, throwing her arms up in the air. Doc narrowed his eyes at the nickname. "We've seen enough, and I don't want anymore sh-" Liv quickly covered her mouth.

"What Phyl is trying to say is that she doesn't want any more harm to come us." Elijah interpreted with an innocent smile on his face. "C'mon, Phyl; let's go pick out some costumes." The odd trio left.

"Why'd you cover my mouth anyway? I wasn't gonna the actual thing." Phyllis argued. "It's not my fault the garbage gut didn't get the figure of speech."

"So you wouldn't kill him, just give him his what for, right?" Elijah asked.

"Right."

Later on, B.O.B. got his wish, and I became Lady GaGa for Halloween of 2014. With a short platinum blond wig, a white short strapless shimmery dress, matching fingerless gloves and beige heels with no body, it looked like one of those paper doll dress sheets.

"Well! Jennifer!" Doc exclaimed, looking up from a motion detector he was working on. "I can see it turned out." I just smiled; when he says something like that, it means he thinks it's weird and is trying to be nice about it.

"Aw, Billie," B.O.B. cooed. "I should try that out next year." Everyone gave him a disgusted look. "What? I thought it was a good idea."

"Now that's what I'm talking about!" Link screamed. Elijah came out of his cell, hair mussed up and dressed up in the dark green jacket and pants Link described. The coyote boy smiled shyly. "Now what's everybody else?"

"Weellllll, I don't know for sure." Elijah shrugged. "All I heard is that Liv's in the process of the costume the General picked out for her, and Phyllis sarcastically suggested 'Russian zombie.'"

"Russian zombie..." Susan repeated, tucking her hair in the third time into her Princess Leia wig. "That's not a bad idea, except for what kind of Russian?"

"Now don't worry about a thing, dear." We heard Liv say as both she and Phyllis stepped out of her cell.

"Wow..." I kinda gaped. "Nice pick, Link." The fishman kept on staring at the four-foot beauty as she approached us, probably too focused to tell me to shut up.

Her brunette locks were in curls, pulled back, and decked here and there with rhinestone butterfly hair clips. Her dress consisted of only three colors to match her wings. The blue top had these three-quarter length sleeves that were slightly off her shoulders and an orange stomacher with matching strands criss-crossing across her chest. The skirt was yellow with embroidered somewhat curlicue shapes and blue material draped around most of the skirt except for the front.

As for Phyllis, yeah, she was beautiful too, but in a different style. I'm not saying she looks good in everything but she did become a Russian zombie for Halloween. As it turned out, she became zombie Anastasia. With an outfit that looks like something Anya wore in the movie during the "Once Upon a December" sequence, only ripped and shredded randomly. And with the strands of blue hair and the added makeup, it looked great.

"Your Majesty!" B.O.B. cried.

"It's 'Your Highness', B.O.B." Doc corrected.

"Your Highness!" B.O.B. yelled again. "What did Rasputin do to you?"

"Hey, B.O.B.! That princess was a goner as it was." I told him. "Be happy for Susan, whose Princess was never a goner. It took this place five years to put together a costume for her." I turned to Susan. "And by the way, Your Worshipfulness, you look good." The giantess smiled.

"Y'all ready, monsters?" We heard Monger call as if he were ready to herd us out like cattle. All of a sudden I felt embarrassed in my GaGa costume. "Well, well, well...what are we this year?"

"What do you mean 'what are we this year'?" Link retorted. "You picked out the costumes."

After about an hour when we left, we landed in front of the Murphy Mansion, as B.O.B. and I like to put it.

"Suzi-Q!" Carl joyfully greeted. We slid down, as usual, Insecto's wing into their front yard. Susan reached down and hugged her parents, who were dressed up as Dracula and one of the wives.

"Oh, honey," Wendy cried. "I'm so happy they finally got you a costume. And it's good to see you guys again too." She hugged every one of us-B.O.B. carefully-like an aunt you've never met or remembered. She studied Elijah, Phyllis, and Liv. "And these are who?"

"Oh, yeah, I forgot to tell you." Susan apologized. "We got new monsters."

"Well c'mon out to the backyard." Carl directed. "Your mother, Susan, really outdid herself."

"Oh, Carl; you know that's not right." Wendy denied modestly. "And you guys, anything you see out here you go on and help yourselves."

Rather peckish myself, I picked up a black paper plate to start off a buffet line. "Ah, Wendy's fine china!" I commented broadly, which made a few laugh.

"That was rude." Doc whispered in my ear during the line. I turned around, smiled cheesily, and twiddled my fingers in front of his face.

"Happy Halloween, Doc." I chimed before skipping off with my plate of corn on the cob, carrot fingers, and a dark chocolate spider cupcake.

Having picked out the goods we wanted, we sat down at a table that was set up like we were going to watch some performance or something. Susan set up a projector and screen and the cue of a wink from her dad. Carl pushed a button, selected a few options, and sat down with his wife next to their giant daughter. The title of the video we were watching revealed to be the beginning of Michael Jackson's Thriller music video.

"It's been forever since I've seen this." I whispered. I remember seeing it when I was nine, and it freaked me out. However, my twin brother Alex was pretty brave and watched it, so for my pride's sake, I stayed.

Watching the 50's style couple outside the car with no gas, B.O.B. leaned over. "Aren't they cute together?" He asked.

"Yeah," I commented. Everything was pretty peaceful until the moment Michael looked up with the werewolf's yellow eyes and teeth. At the same time the girlfriend screamed, B.O.B. let out a yelp of fear and quickly hid his eye. Hearing the screams and animal-like moans, the blob winced. "If you want, we can leave." I told him.

"No," He whimpered. "If you stay, I stay."

"Listen up. It scared me too when I was little, and I watched it all the way through. But, it gave me nightmares."

"Okay, I don't want bad dreams. Let's go."

Sitting in the living room, B.O.B. became more relaxed. Tapping my foot to the distant beat of the song, I whistled the song out. God, this was getting boring.

Standing out in the corner of the room was a stereo system complete with a 6-CD drive and surround sound. Searching the CD tray, I found all sorts of Halloween music. I read the label to a CD titled "Monster Mash" and decided to try it out. I pushed "play" and the lead song started out with what sounds like the medieval version of Doc's lab. The beat before long started sounding through the speakers. By the time the chorus came on, B.O.B. was dancing his little heart out. Not even panting when the song ended, he turned to me.

"Can we do it again?" He asked. "And will you dance with me this time?"

"My pleasure." I replied. I pushed the skip button, and the song began again.

"(He did the mash) He did the monster mash,

"(The monster mash) It was a graveyard smash,

"(He did the mash) It caught all in a flash,

"(He did the mash) He did the monster mash."

So for the short amount of time we had while everyone else was watching the video, B.O.B. and I were having a little date of our own. Dancing until we heard the front door squeak wide open.

Okay, the "In Monsters we Trust" motto wasn't my thing. If you look at the bottom of the picture frame on Hathaway's picture in Mutant Pumpkins from Outer Space, you can see it right there. Again, as DawnOftheMonsters has spoken, we're getting another MvA Halloween special soon. Camping again, only this time with the family. Won't be as hectic so I'll have lots of time to write. Yay, we're halfway through the story!