"I've got an idea!" Kowalski said.

The boys were sitting in the underground base after school. It was the week before Halloween and Kowalski had been working hard. He figured that if words won't help persuade Private's mom, then inventions would do it.

Skipper and Private entered the room to see Kowalski holding a strange satellite-like device with a tennis ball on top of it.

"Mind control." Kowalski said with a huge grin. "Put this on your head and she'll do whatever you ask. It can work on others too."

"Seriously, Kowalski? Mind control?" Skipper sighed.

"Watch."

Kowalski strapped the satellite dish to his head and turned it on. He squinted at Rico. The device whirred and beeped. He heard a whooshing noise and grinned.

"Now he'll do whatever I ask- what?" He noticed the expressions on their faces. "Is it hot in here to you?"

"Your mind is on fire." Skipper said.

"It sure is…wait did you mean that as a compliment or insu-OW!"

Private had just hit him on the head with a broom.

"WHAT THE HECK?!"

"You're on fire!" Private said.

Kowalski yelled and put his hands on his head only to whip them back down.

Skipper found a fire extinguisher and sprayed Kowalski.

"You look like an old man."

Kowalski glared at Skipper.

"Your hands are burned." Private said.

"It's alright." Kowalski said, removing the charred helmet from his head. "Maybe I can make a persuasive serum for her to drink." He looked over at his test tubes. "Or we can disguise ourselves and move to Canada."

"Canada?" Skipper said.

"For the bacon."

"Even if it's just ham?"

"It's good ham."

"All ham is good ham."

"Touché."

Private sighed. "Well, we better go." He said.

The other three looked at him as he started to walk out.

"Cheer up, it's almost Halloween and you know what that means." Skipper said.

"CANDY!" Kowalski shouted.

"MEOW-MEOWS!" Rico added.

"That's part of the candy."

Rico stuck his tongue out at Kowalski.

"Oh real mature." Kowalski scoffed.

"I told you last minute shopping was not cool." Barry sighed. He was watching Kenny and Private pick out Halloween outfits while Ramona and Allie were looking over decorations for Allie's house.

The plan so far was that on Halloween, Allie's parents would pick up the other four and from there, the friends would go trick or treating.

The only odd part was that Kenny had no idea what to do. Barry laughed until Ramona smacked him. Apparently, Kenny and Kowalski hadn't been trick or treating before or at least that they had remembered.

Private had even been out trick or treating twice with both of those times his mother had been gone on a trip and Uncle Nigel wanted little Andre to have as much fun as possible. That being said, Private hadn't been out since the age of six. When he was four, he'd dressed up as a pumpkin and when he was six, he was a magician.

Now he was eyeing several different costumes of Barry's selection.

Allie decided to go as Merida from Brave and Ramona was going as Katniss from the Hunger Games, but both zombies because Barry 'bit' them.

Kenny finally decided to dress up as an astronaut and refused to be a zombie. Barry said he'd bite later.

Private then chose to dress up as Colin Creevey from Harry Potter, using his real camera to take pictures.

The older kids were going to a Halloween party at the school.

Kowalski dressed up as a mad scientist and Rico dressed up as the Joker. Julien screamed his head off when Rico grinned at him. Skipper put on an old uniform that had belonged to his father. He said it made him more proud to have it on than to celebrate a holiday.

Alice warned everyone who was leaving that they had to be back in the apartments by midnight or she'd make their lives a nightmare. They also had to sign in and out when leaving and entering.

Barry was having the most difficult time staying in character because he was too busy laughing at his prank.

Earlier that morning, Barry had put a hand over Izzy's mouth and woke him up, warning him to be silent. Then he'd crept over to Leonard's bed, squirted some ketchup on his arm and began gnawing on it. Leonard grumbled before opening his eyes and letting out the most ear piercing scream ever.

Barry had nearly wet himself laughing and Leonard was still fuming.

"Can't we take a subway?" Barry asked after five minutes of waiting.

"Allie's dad will be here soon." Private said.

Ramona had already gone with Allie after school to fix her costume more.

"Besides, we can't go on the subway by ourselves." Kenny said.

"Why not?" Barry whined.

"Do you know how many germs are on a subway?" Melman's voice came from behind.

"Yes, I also know how many germs there are in human saliva."

Melman's eyes widened and he ran back inside.

Private would have said something, but he was distracted by Hunter's costume. She had a fish tail, a tentacle for an arm, a seal mask and a bunch of trash on her.

"I am what we are doing to the environment. I am the eventual mutation and death that will occur if we don't do something now." She said once she had spotted Barry snickering.

"Can we go now?" Skipper asked, cutting across Hunter.

"Not yet, I want to be sure that my brother and the others are safe." Kowalski said.

"Fine- Marlene what are you wearing?"

Marlene grinned. "A few of my friends and I are going as parade dancers."

"With really short skirts?"

"Why does that matter? Don't you watch the Macy's parade? They have dancers who wear this kind of stuff."

"It bothers me."

Marlene laughed. "Come on, be a bit more open minded. It's not like I dress like this every day. What are you worried about?"

"Well if you must know, it is still really cold outside."

"It warmed up a bit, and we'll be in a crowded gym."

"What if something happens?"

"Like what?"

"Like…well…what…Hypothermia?"

"Hypo-? I'm fine, I've talked to my parents and they think it's a great costume. I have a jacket in my purse. What about the others, won't you worry about them?"

"They've got layers, you don't."

"I'll dance, then."

"OH LOOK, ALLIE'S DAD IS HERE." Barry said loudly, blocking out the conversation.

"Is it?" Private asked.

"Yup." Barry said. "Hey, Greg."

Allie's father looked at Barry with a half stern expression. "Barry, I've told you plenty of times, I'm still Mr. Carson to you." He said.

"Yes sir." Barry said.

The boys climbed in the car and waved to Skipper and the others.

"They'll be alright with me." Mr. Carson said to Kowalski.

Kowalski nodded and smiled.

"What's he worried about?" Private said. He'd noticed Kowalski talking something through with Kenny all day.

"I don't know." Barry said, "He did that last year too."

"And before?"

"He didn't come with us the year before and beyond that, I didn't know him."

They both looked at Kenny who opted to keep his eyes glued to the window.

Mr. Carson must have noticed because he began talking to divert their attention. "So, I see I have a new passenger."

Private grinned.

"What's your name, young man?"

"Andre, sir, but my nickname is Private."

"Private…huh, interesting. You grow up in a military background?"

"No, my roommate wouldn't stop calling me that and it just grew on me."

"Ah, nothing like roommate pressure to kick in a new name."

The boys laughed.

"Hey, can you tell us embarrassing stories about Allie?" Barry asked.

"Let's see…how about no."

"But-"

"Barry, it wouldn't be nice to talk about her like that."

"That means she did something totally embarrassing, come on, spill it."

Private nudged Barry to remind him that Mr. Carson was still an adult and they should show respect.

Barry had fallen asleep before Private had realized that they were heading towards the Bronx.

"Wow, Allie lives far. Do you pick her up every day and drive her to school?"

"No, she rides the bus with our neighbor's daughter." Mr. Carson responded.

"Must be a nice neighborhood."

"More like nice building."

"Huh?"

Mr. Carson pointed to a building he was slowing down near.

"She lives in an apartment?"

"And now the mystery is over." Kenny said. "She doesn't have to live there if she'd just go back to an apartment at home anyway."

"I thought she just lived closer."

"We're thinking about moving into her Grandmother's house a bit closer to the school. Of course we don't want to do anything to disrupt the school year so we're waiting until summer to figure everything out. I still have to pay rent."

The boys poked Barry awake and followed Mr. Carson into the building.

As soon as he opened the door to the room, the smell of chocolate reached their noses.

"Oh, that's good." Barry said, kicking off his shoes and rushing in.

"Do you mind leaving your shoes here?" Mr. Carson asked the other two. "We just got a new carpet and the floors are clean."

Private smiled, "No problem, we do this at my house too. I live above a bakery and my mum's a nut about dirt."

"Allie's mom is better, she won't freak out if you drop a cookie on the carpet." Ramona called out. "She just hands you a mini vacuum."

Kenny and Private found Barry being handed said vacuum.

"Right, sorry An- I mean, Mrs. Carson." Barry said, cleaning up the crumbled piece of cookie.

"Hello Kenny, nice to see you again." Mrs. Carson said. "And who might you be?"

"My name is Andre, but I like being called Private. Except for tonight because I'm Colin Creevey."

"Oh wow, that's a lot to remember. Would you like a cookie?"

"Certainly, thank you."

"You're so polite; I wish I had a son like you."

"You have a son?"

"You had to bring him up?" Allie grumbled, fastening her curly red wig. Mr. Carson quickly slid out of view.

"What's going on?" A boy had come out of a room at the end of the hallway. "Is everything okay?"

"Yes Jake, we were just discussing something."

"Was it Frankie?"

"How'd you know that?" Ramona asked.

"I'm super smart…and Uncle Greg looks cheesed off."

"Jake is going with you kids." Mrs. Carson said, wanting a change in subject.

The kids picked up on that at once and grinned at the younger boy. Allie explained that her cousin Jake came along because his parents were always busy. Mrs. Carson was delivering some cookies to a neighbor and saving the rest. Once she had delivered the cookies, she got ready to go out with the kids.

When Mrs. Carson was busy helping Jake with his bloody ghost makeup, Allie pulled the other kids aside. She explained to them that Frankie was not to ever be mentioned.

"How old is he?" Private asked.

"I don't know, he's fifteen or sixteen years older than me. I have a stepbrother and stepsister, but Frankie left us a long time ago. Consider him disowned and a banned subject. My stepsister still thinks he can change. She lives with her dad and hardly ever visits."

"Does she go to Central High?" Kenny asked.

"Yes, but I'm not telling you who she is."

Ramona rolled her eyes. "Seriously, you both look like your mother. It's-"

"Alright, let's go." Jake nearly shouted.

The kids set off with Mrs. Carson following them. First, they ran through the building to collect as much candy as possible. Then they exited the apartment property to the streets.

"No, that house is scary." Jake complained when they had reached the end of the block.

"Don't be such a wimp, just blend in." Barry said. He winked, then rolled his eyes and groaned as he walked towards the door.

Ramona laughed and followed suit. "I volunteer…to eat your braaaaains…"

"I want freedom of brains…" Allie moaned.

"One small step for zombie, one giant leap towards candy!" Kenny said.

"What does Colin say? I've only read the books." Private whispered.

"I'm nine, I haven't read Harry Potter." Jake whispered back.

"Er…I'm in Gryffindor too…er…COLIN TO THE RESCUE!" He shot forward to catch up with Kenny and the zombie trio.

A couple of kids jumped as the zombie trio bumped into them.

"Cool costumes." A man said.

Allie snapped out of her role to stare at the costume. It looked like something out of a monster horror movie. He had an axe in the middle of his costume and looked half furry and half skeletal.

"What the-?"

"Scared, little girl?" He asked. "Take some candy if you dare." He pointed to a smoking bowl.

"I am not scared." Allie said.

They peered into the bowl which was full of what looked like moving strings.

"Worms?" Ramona guessed.

The kids looked at each other, silently asking who was brave enough to touch it. They saw that there was candy among the worms.

Kenny shook and stepped away, Allie followed him.

"I'm not scared. No way!" Barry said defiantly.

"Then put your hand in." The man said in a creepy voice.

"There's an eyeball in there." Ramona squeaked.

Barry drew a deep breath and looked at Private. Private nodded.

"On three?"

"Y-yeah."

"Not scared, are you?"

"No, you?"

"Never."

Private grinned. "One."

"Two."

"THREE!" They shouted, plunging their hands in.

Private closed his hand and withdrew it in a split second, splattering his clothes with the worms and something red.

"Hang on a minute…" he gasped, looking at his hand.

"Spaghetti." Barry said, pulling his hand out.

Private opened his hand and half the spaghetti flopped out. "I got an eye."

"I got two." Barry said. "And a candy bar."

They looked at the man who had an expression that suggested that he was impressed.

"You two are the only ones who were brave enough to do that." He said, holding a spaghetti free bowl of candy. "And for that, you get a special prize." He gave everyone candy and handed Barry and Private two jars that had the floating eyes. "By the way, the eyes are not edible. The spaghetti is edible…cold, but perfectly safe."

"Cool, thanks man!" Barry said, slurping a string of spaghetti into his mouth.

At the end of the night, they returned to Allie's apartment to compare their candy stash. Allie's mother took a picture of all their cold flushed faces.

Barry got the most amount of candy followed closely by Private; Allie and Ramona tied for third place and Kenny in fourth. Jake was last since he refused to go anywhere near at least three houses.

"That was amazing!" Private said. "Thanks so much for inviting me!"

"No problem, what are friends for?" Barry said.

"We are PARK B!" Ramona cheered.

"Yeah!" Kenny said.

"Hear hear!" Allie said.

"With so much candy!" Private added.

"Really? I'm back in the group?" Barry said.

"Yup. I need your help with something." Kenny said.

Barry looked questioningly at him.

"My brother is an awesome swimmer and I was hoping we could all convince him to join the swim team next year. They're having tryouts next semester." Kenny said. "I know he wants to beat Simon at something and swimming could be it!"

He looked hopefully at the rest of them. The others, except for Jake who had gone to bed, nodded in agreement.

"Wait." Private said. "Is he okay with taking his shirt off?"

Kenny hesitated. "I-I'll talk to him about that. They have swim shirts available."

"Yeah, for little kids." Barry said. "What's his deal anyway? Every time I see him in the water he has a shirt on."

"He won't change in our room while we're there. Is he scared?" Private wondered. "I know he's thin, but we won't judge him."

"No, he wears the shirt so he doesn't get sunburned." Kenny said.

"That might work for the pool, but at night? Getting ready for bed involves no sun whatsoever." Ramona said.

Kenny inhaled sharply. "He's just…um…he doesn't like his body much."

Before anyone could respond, Mr. Carson came into the room, telling the others that he'd drive them home now. Kenny refused to speak for the rest of the ride; his knuckles were white as he gripped his candy bag.

Private and Barry gave each other questioning looks, but they knew that Ramona had forbidden them from saying anything.

Private text messaged Skipper, letting him know that they arrived back safely with a load of candy.

Skipper responded by saying that Kowalski left the party early and that Ramona, Kenny and Barry could stay for a little while.

Private headed up to his room while the other three went to clean themselves up.

He was about to go to the bathroom when he noticed the light on. Thinking Kowalski was in there, he took off his robe and entered his room.

"AAH!"

"WHAA!"

Private whipped his hands in front of his face.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN HERE?!" Kowalski yelled, holding a pillow in front of his chest.

"I-I thought you were in the bathroom, I-"

"GET OUT!"

Private dropped the robe and zipped away, closing the door behind him. He found a spot to hide and crawled in.

After a minute or two, he heard soft footsteps exiting the other room.

"Private?"

Private kept his mouth shut; under Rico's bed seemed safe enough until a nasty stench punched his nose. He pinched his nose and waited.

Finally, Kowalski seemed to have given up and retreated to the bathroom.

Private rolled out from under the bed, finally being able to gasp for air. He rubbed his watery eyes and looked around. Whatever it was had smelled like gas, burnt clothing, and blood.

He went down for another look and found something in the corner near an old duffel bag. He picked it up and discovered that it was a torn and burnt sock which smelled horrible. He held it away from himself and something plopped out.

He picked it up and stared at it. It was a shell. Just a plain gray shell which was now broken from the fall.

He glanced around until something caught his eye. The lone picture of four people on Rico's wall. A man and woman were laughing. The woman was holding a one year old and the man was in the middle of accepting a flower from the little girl.

"Oh no." Private whispered. "I'm in the thick of it now."

He let his friends know that he wasn't feeling up to looking at the candy and they could do that tomorrow night. Right now, he knew that he'd done something horrible. He dropped the sock and carefully carried the shell out.

"I'm going to take a walk." He called out.

A muffled reply sounded from the bathroom.

Private hurried as fast as he could to the base, managing to avoid any attention. Alice was asleep at her desk.

Once he'd entered the base, he began searching through the cupboards and drawers of supplies. Knowing that Elmer's glue was definitely not going to work, he set out to find some super glue.

He tapped his watch to reveal a screen on it.

"Skipper?"

Music sounded from the watch as it flickered to a screen with Skipper's face on it.

"Is everything okay?" Skipper asked.

"I just want to know where the super glue is."

"Super glue? It should be in the supply area of the base in one of the drawers. Are you sure everything is alright? "

"Yes, just a little mishap."

Skipper nodded. Private's watch flickered back to the current time.

Private rifled through the drawers until he found one full of different types of glue and tape.

He found the super glue and sat at Kowalski's lab. He put the shell under the microscope and began gluing as carefully as he could.

When he was finished he sighed and looked at the time.

"WHOA!" He yelped. "Nearly midnight?! Alice is going to have my head!"

He took the shell and hurried to the apartments.

"Alvin!" Alice barked.

Private pretended not to hear her and zipped into the elevator, clutching his side.

"You know, I could have kept it open." An amused female voice said.

"Hi, Marlene." Private gasped. "I-is Rico still at the party?"

"No, he and Skipper were behind me when Julien said something that made Skipper lash out. In any case, they're both being chewed out by Alice."

"Oh no…that means Rico saw me…or Skipper…Alice definitely did."

Marlene was about to ask when the doors opened and Private sped out to his room. He frantically opened the door and stumbled into Kowalski. Muttering a hasty apology, he ran back to Rico's room and found the sock. Holding his breath, he put the shell in and smiled.

He was about to put it under the bed when the door opened.

"Private, Alice wants a word with you." Skipper said.

"I swear I didn't mean to, Kowalski scared me and I had to hide and it was stinky and I couldn't figure out why and it just fell and I tried to fix it but-"

"STOP." Skipper said loudly. Private almost dropped the sock again.

Rico came in and immediately spotted the object in Private's hand.

"So that's the smell, I've been meaning to ask you about it." Skipper said. "I thought you did laundry yesterday."

Rico shrugged indifferently.

Private handed him the sock.

"I didn't mean to break it."

Rico looked startled. He upturned the sock and the shell fell out. He examined it closely.

"Okay." He said.

"But, why? I broke something and obviously it's special or you wouldn't have reacted that way."

Rico's eyes flew towards the wall and Private followed his gaze.

"Your mother…"

"Yeah."

"There are so many things being said about you…I'd like to know the truth. I want to know the real Rico."

Rico looked at his other teammates.

"Rikki."

"I'll get her." Kowalski said. "Unless you'd rather wait until tomorrow."

"No." Rico said. "Now…better…please."

Kowalski nodded.

Once he had returned with Rikki, they all gathered in the living room to hear the story.

"One thing you have to know though." Rikki said. "The story isn't pretty. My dad told us as often as he could because we asked so much. I remember my feelings from that day. The day that our mom died."

Rico sighed. "Go."

Rikki nodded and drew a deep breath.

A/N: So many back stories… so the drama…so go review and wait for the next chapter already.

Also, you don't need to worry whatsoever about Jake, he most likely will never be mentioned again.

Though there is something going on with Ramona, Allie, Barry, and Kenny that will play a part later.

Also, I have never read the Hunger Games, just seen the trailer where Katniss says "I volunteer…" so sorry if you don't like her being a zombie… or the fact that I just killed a great line ;)

Again, so many back stories…next chapter we begin with Rico's and the truth behind the accusations that he blew up his old school and killed his mother.