Chapter 10 - This is Halloween
((A/N: So this is gonna be a filler chapter. This has nothing to do with the ongoing story, and is just here to be a fun holiday special! Hope you enjoy!))
It was October in Auradon, and things were starting to look a little familiar for the VKs. Leaves falling off the trees, less birds and cute animals running around, and people wearing dark colors. It almost felt... homey.
"So, explain this whole Halloween thing to me again?" Quinn asked, sitting with Amyra outside a café. They were supposed to be talking about school, but the topic kept shifting. Quinn poked at the slab of orange pastry she'd been told was "pumpkin bread", looking over at the cartoony paper bats and spiders hanging in people's windows. "I don't get it."
"Okay so, like, a thousand years ago, Halloween was the one night of the year where the gates of the underworld opened up and demons and ghosts tormented the living." Amyra took a sip of her pumpkin spice late, and waved her hand for emphasis. "There was this big demon called Chernabog and he was super scary... anyways, some priests locked him up, and then Halloween became a big celebration. Like: Yay, the monsters are gone, let's party!"
"Nowadays, people just put up spooky decorations, eat pumpkin flavored food, and dress up as villains. It's a lot of fun." The Agraban princess pulled out her phone and tapped a few things, before turning it around. Quinn saw dozens of pictures of candy, hot people in costumes, fake haunted houses, and pumpkins with every imaginable kind of face carved into them. Her face lit up with excitement. "I'm actually trying to throw a Halloween party of my own this weekend, you wanna help?"
"Absolutely!" Quinn said, a little too loudly. She blushed bright red and sat back down, smoothing out her skirt. "I mean... yes, that'd be fun." She had no idea why it was hard to keep her voice down around Amyra. No idea at all...
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Dante held his boyfriend's hand as they walked through the stores, looking at Halloween costumes. "So why are we going to this party?" He asked for probably the third time, entering yet another store. "Uma, Harry, Quinn and I were gonna do something..."
"Trust me, habibi, you're gonna enjoy this." Aziz kissed Dante's cheek and handed him a costume. "There's loud music, candy, dancing really close to each other~" He teased, grabbing himself a costume and walking into the changing room.
"Damn it, he knows me." The son of Hades sighed, looking at the costume he'd been handed. It was Hercules, which made Dante feel... awkward. The VKs had been at Auradon for just over a month now, but they still felt weird around the children of their parents' rivals. Uma and Ariana silently resented each other, Quinn did her best to avoid ever being in the same room alone as Ally, and Harry was just lucky that Wendy either didn't have children or didn't send them to Auradon Prep.
Herkie, Hercules' son, went to Olympus High, back in Greece. Unfortunately, that's who they were playing against in the big game, so Dante would have to meet him eventually. "Unless I can avoid going to the game entirely... Like maybe breaking my leg..." He paused and considered the possibilities.
"Hey, how do I look?" Dante's thought process was interrupted by his boyfriend stepping out of the changing room. Aziz was wearing puffy white pants, a purple vest, a small red hat, and nothing else. The demigod's fire hair doubled in size, turning bright pink. "I thought maybe I'd try going as my dad this year, since I was Jafar last year... what do you think?"
"I think you should dress like this more often~" Dante purred, wrapping his arms around Aziz's muscular torso. "My hero~" The two shared a quick kiss before Aziz dragged Dante into the dressing room with him. "Wait, I didn't say I would wear the costume!"
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Uma was less enthusiastic about Halloween than her friends. She had been approached by no less than three princesses (and one prince) asking her for tips on their villain costumes, and several who wanted to go as her!
"Hey, Ben, are you in there?" Uma knocked on the prince's door. He was the one AK she knew who saw her as just Uma, a person (she couldn't exactly say "human being", seeing as she wasn't one), and not "Ursula's scary daughter". Aziz and Amyra were nice, but they were way more interested in her friends than her.
"Uma, is that you? Come in, the door's unlocked!" Ben responded. Uma rolled her eyes at how trusting he was, and let herself in. Ben was in the middle of putting together a Halloween costume, just like everyone else. A red shirt, black pants, leather boots... it was pretty obvious who he was going as. "What do you think? Would I make a good Gaston?"
Uma pictured Ben wearing the outfit in her head, which lead to her imagining him with Gaston's actual physique. She blushed, and quickly shook the idea out of her head. "You'll look... fine. Totally fine." She said, avoiding direct eye contact. "Better than the real thing!"
Ben beamed, and Uma wanted to slap herself. "Aww, thanks, that's really nice of you!" He turned around and reached into his bag, pulling out a small slip of paper. "I got an invitation to Amyra's Halloween party tonight, and I needed a plus one. So I was wondering if you wanted to come with me?"
The sea witch froze up. Obviously, going to a party with Ben would make seducing him and stealing the Fairy Godmother's wand much easier, but... it felt like more than just a gig. Like it would be... wrong? But she quickly stomped that feeling down, like she did with so many others, and smiled. "Of course! I'd... love that." She almost choked on the word.
Ben smiled and handed her the invitation. "Awesome! You better go pick out a costume if you don't have one already. I'm sure there's something decent left in the stores."
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Harry was starting to like Halloween. He had accidentally bumped into Ally Liddell, daughter of Alice, in the hallway and knocked over what he thought was art supplies. It turned out to be spray paint and cartons of eggs. Sweet, curious little Ally was secretly Auradon's biggest prankster!
"This is way more fun than prank wars with my sisters!" Harry laughed, throwing a roll of toilet paper over the statue of King Beast. "Mostly because you haven't dumped paint on me or tried to feed me to a crocodile. But still."
Ally stopped what she was doing for a second and stared at Harry. "You're joking, right?" She chucked a bath bomb into the fountain. "Please say you're joking." The entire fountain turned a bubbling green color, but Ally's face remained serious.
"What, it's just sibling rivalry? That's what my dad said, at least." Harry shrugged. He and Ally ran away from the statue, trying to find another place to vandalize. He gripped his hook tightly, using it to slash a few random flyers into ribbons. "All relationships are like that on the Isle."
"That's really depressing." Ally threw an egg over her shoulder, hitting the side of a restaurant. "You know that, right?"
Harry stopped right in front of the Cheshire Cat Café. "Maybe..." He had never actually stopped to think about it. Sure, he didn't like how Captain Hook, Jane or CJ treated him, but the idea that this wasn't how everyone's parents were? Brand new to him.
"Do you want to go to a party?" Ally asked, setting down the backpack she'd been carrying. She opened it up and produced two costumes, as well as a pair of invitations to the exact party Amyra had been planning earlier. "With me? As friends, of course." She added that last part a bit hastily.
"Sure, why not?" Harry sighed and grabbed one of the costumes. "Let's go... socialize."
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Amyra's party was going great. Almost everyone from Auradon Prep was there, including students the VKs hadn't interacted with yet. Everyone was dressed like a villain or some kind of monster, fitting the spooky theme. There were bat and spider decorations hanging from the ceiling, bobbing for "poison" apples, and even a pumpkin carving contest.
Uma took a chug of (disappointingly alcohol free) punch, and stepped onto the dance floor. Ben was already there, in his Gaston costume, dancing with Audrey (dressed as Maleficent) and Ariana (dressed as Ursula). "If they can dance like that without any shame, I can too." She said to herself.
She was going as, fitting the theme of Auradonian Halloween parties, Ariel. The mermaid version, she absolutely refused to wear a pink dress. It felt weird, being dressed like her cousin slash niece slash that-gullible-idiot-who-her-mom-tried-to-kill-one-time, but Uma had to admit, green wasn't a bad color on her.
But Uma ended up walking right past the royals and straight to the other side of the ballroom. That's where she saw her three friends, and their... dates? "When did you clowns get popular?"
Dante, naturally dressed like Hercules was dancing with Aziz, much closer than the other dancing couples. He laughed and twirled his boyfriend, smiling at Uma. "Nice to see you too, squid head! You're rocking the seashell look, by the way." He teased. Uma rolled her eyes..
Quinn was dressed like Alice, and it was very weird to see her in a color that wasn't red, black or gold. Amyra, dressed in a red version of her mother's old outfit, was away talking to the other royals, but kept turning her head to look at the villainess. "This is so much better than parties on the Isle! Better food, better music, better boys..." She looked over at Chad Charming, who was dressed like the Headless Horseman... only he kept poking his head out of the costume to admire himself in the nearest reflective surface.
"I look like a dobber, but so does everyone else, so it's okay." Harry said, directing Uma's attention to him. He was dressed like Peter Pan, complete with tight green pants that Ally definitely picked on purpose. Uma couldn't help but laugh, and her friends joined her. "If my dad saw this, he'd keelhaul me for sure."
Ally, who was going as the Queen of Hearts and just ended up looking like a blonde Quinn, giggled. "My mother wouldn't be happy about this either, but she's not here, so who cares?" The four VKs looked at each other and nodded in agreement. Their parents weren't here, and they were. So why not have a little fun?
The radio started playing a particularly spooky song, and they all grabbed their dates. Dante and Aziz, Quinn and Amyra, Uma and Ben, even Harry and Ally. They all pulled themselves onto the dance floor and partied the night away.