Thank you all for you patience, and your subtle reminders... that does spur me on a little faster lol. Thanks also as always for the reviews and alerts.
There's a free Halloween short story on my blog if anyone would like to read it. The competition is over but all the stories advertised by various authors are free. I'm sorry I didn't have time to let everyone know earlier.
Hope you all enjoy this chapter :)
Chapter 33
Mattie stuck her phone under her pillow and smiled. Thank God she'd managed to stay out of trouble for a while. Tomorrow was Halloween and she and Max and the others had plans. The others being her friends, not Josh and Chloe. Not that she wouldn't have included them if she could but well Josh could go either way where a plan was concerned. He could go along with it or he could blow the whistle and essentially wreck their whole plan and Chloe? Well Chloe was Chloe. There's no way she'd be able to contain her excitement. They'd be sure to get caught and then everything would be ruined. Better to wait for the street to be a little crowded and then sneak off.
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When the house was silent, Mattie snuck downstairs and started the first part of her plan. Supplies. She opened the pantry and cursed under her breath at the squeak the door made. Within the general noise of the day the squeak went unnoticed, but when the house was silent and the only sound was two snoring old dogs, it may as well have been a bomb. She looked around nervously at first and then shook her head. What was she worried about? She was only getting food. All she had to say was that she'd been hungry if someone asked.
She shovelled a bag of potato chips, a packet of cookies and various other snacks into the pockets of her baggy sweat pants and then wrapped her robe around her and tied it before heading for the stairs. Her foot was on the bottom step and she almost made it when Bullwinkle shoved his head in front of her almost tripping her.
"Shhh. Bull, bed." Mattie hissed.
Bullwinkle tried to nudge open her robe.
"No, you ate already." she said patting the big dog's head affectionately.
Bullwinkle whined loudly and then collapsed onto her foot in in a huff.
"One cookie." Mattie whispered as she tried to open the packet without making a noise. Impossible. Bullwinkle barked.
"Shhhhh. Ok two." she said holding out two chocolate chips. "But that's it."
Bullwinkle snatched his midnight snack and trotted back to his favourite perch on the rug in front of the TV. He glared at the stupid thing that wasn't showing any pictures and lay back down. His long dribbly tongue lapped around his mouth to make sure he hadn't wasted any of the sweet crumbs before he once again succumbed to sleep.
Mattie let out a breath that she didn't know she was holding and continued up the stairs.
"Shouldn't give dogs chocolate you know." Josh said in a creepy voice. He was standing at the top of the stairs with a flashlight shining under his chin.
Mattie jumped. "Josh...you scared me half to death."
"What are you up to?" he asked, flicking the light up and down and around Mattie to see what she was hiding.
"What makes you think I'm up to something?"
"Oh I don't know. Could be that your sneaking around in the middle of the night, feeding the dog…looking suspicious."
"I was hungry." she said said trying to get past him.
"Uh huh. If you were hungry you would have eaten something. You weren't eating you were hoarding."
"You're full of it." she said.
"I don't really care." Josh said. "Just make sure you leave me out of it. Every time you girls get some kind of brilliant idea I get spanked. Not this time, I'm out of it."
"Fine." she said. "Sounds good to me, just don't say anything to Chloe."
"As if." Josh said. "This thing you have planned... is it with Max?"
"I thought you said you didn't want to know."
"I don't. You're not going somewhere with Max alone though are you?"
"NO!" she giggled. "Of course not."
"What's so funny?"
"You almost sound like a big brother."
"I guess I do." Josh said. "Just be careful."
"Awww. You care."
"I care that Harm gets through Halloween without confiscating all our candy and tanning our asses."
"That would be nice." Mattie said. SHE was probably going to end up in trouble but it'd be worth it.
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"Chloe, you can be a vampire with a long skirt or pants." Harm said. "There's no WAY you're going to parade around the streets with your dress up around your...you're not wearing it that's all."
"I bought a longer one Harm, " Mac said. "She bought one on line that wasn't really meant for a young girl
"Good." he said, giving the young girl a pointed look. "You check next time before you buy anything."
"Yours all set Josh?" Mac asked. "You need me to do anything to your costume?"
"Nope. I just have to paint some blood on my mask and my knife…and no it's not a real knife."
She smiled. "Nice. Mattie?"
"Nope. Im fine. I'm a nice safe witch with a long dress and a big wart on my nose. Ugly as all get out Harm, no one will look twice at me."
"Good." Harm, said. "There's some crazy people out there, you can't be too careful."
"I have to go to school." Mattie said getting up and slinging her bag over her shoulder. "You two coming?" She did her best to push away the guilt that always crept over her when Harm was all caring and parent like. The fact that he and Mac would be worried when she didn't come home ate at her but not enough to make her change her mind. She'd find a way to leave them some kind of message so they knew she was ok. Then they wouldn't worry so much, they'd just be pissed at her. Her butt would pay later she was sure but it'd be worth it.
"I guess, what's the big rush?" Chloe said.
"I'll catch you up." Josh said.
"I wanna see Max before school that's all." Mattie said. Truth was she didn't want to sit at a table with people when she couldn't make eye contact.
Chloe rolled her eyes. "Of course you do." She shoved the rest of her pop tart into her mouth and waved goodbye as Mattie dragged her out the door.
"See ya." Josh said a couple of minutes later as he went to catch the girls.
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I can't believe they're letting us Trick or Treat with our friends." Chloe said excitedly. Her friends were all allowed to trick or treat by themselves, but Chloe was amazed that she was. "Harm and Mac can be a little over protective. I get that they're new to this but they don't always have to assume something bad's gonna happen."
"I know." Mattie said distractedly.
"Now why would they assume there'd be trouble?" Josh said, finally catching the girls.
"Who knows." Chloe said.
"I was being sarcastic ya dork." Josh said. "They think that because when one scheme is done you two either collectively or separate are on to the next."
Mattie shrugged. "Worry about yourself." she said poking out her tongue.
"I intend to." Josh said pointedly.
"Hey! I miss something?" Chloe said.
"Nope." Mattie said. "Wanna swap for favourites tonight after we're done?"
"Sure." Chloe said unaware that Mattie had just gotten away with changing the subject.
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Josh crossed the road to the school when he saw a couple of his friends standing out front. He'd finally passed the tests that he needed to get into the school at a grade above Mattie. He had paid attention and studied hard. Seems he wasn't as stupid as he thought he was. The intense home schooling had got him up to date in no time. School was so much better than learning by yourself. For the first time in a long time he was enjoying just being a kid.
He happened to turn just as Mattie leaned up to kiss Max...on the lips. He frowned. That kid better not have any weird ideas about being alone with his si..., his...what exactly was she? Basically she was his sister and he'd break that weirdo's arms if he had ideas about her.
"You trick or treating with us?" his friend Tyler asked.
"Yep." Josh answered with a grin, for the moment forgetting about Mattie who was now out of sight and out of mind. "This Halloween he intended to have fun, no matter what."
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"It is safe isn't it?" Mattie asked.
"Yeah sure it is." Issy said. "They would have pulled it down by now if it wasn't. It's just haunted so no one wants to buy it."
"Okay..." Mattie said. No reason to be scared of a few ghosts. It wasn't like they could actually do anything to you.
Max clung to the fingers that were tightly entwined with his own. "I'll protect you." he said.
"Awww." Buzz said. "Ain't that sweet."
"Let's see what kind of a hero you are." Max said. "Bet your the first one to cry."
"Really." Buzz said. "I bet that I will stay longer than any of you."
"Let's make it interesting." Amy said. "First one out has to do the homework of the last one out, for one week."
"Sure." Mattie said. "So just to get it straight, last one out is the last one to physically leave the house?"
"Yeah."
"What if Max and I leave together?"
"Hmmm." Issy said "A have to choose between you."
"Sounds fair." Max said. He didn't really care about the prize. He was doing it for the fun.
"Food?" Issy said.
"I have some snacks and almost a packet of cookies." Mattie said.
"Almost?" Max chuckled.
"Long story."
"Guess we'll have time tonight."
"Yes we will." Mattie said with a grin.
TBC tomorrow I promise :)