Hello everyone! Just want to say that I am super-sorry for not posting for about a week. I was really busy, and when I did have time to write, I was faced with the dreaded writer's-block. The horror! But now that that's gone (at least for now), I managed to write this chapter.

I received multiple reviews asking for a Halloween chapter. Since there were more than one, I'll just say credit to those who suggested it! Normally, I do the suggestions I receive in order, but since Halloween's just passed (although it's been a while), I'll make an exception. So here it is!

Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon in any way, shape or size!

Halloween

Grade Three

May (8), Ash (8), Gary (8), Leaf (8), Paul (8), Drew (8), Dawn (8), Misty (8)

Ash, Misty, Gary and Leaf were standing in a group in front of Leaf's house, waiting for their other four friends to arrive. It was Halloween, and the eight of them had decided to go trick-or-treating together. Since Ash, Misty, Gary and Leaf all lived on Pallet Street, and were within walking distance from one another, they had already grouped up.

"I wish they would hurry up." Gary said impatiently. "I want to go trick-or-treating already!"

"Come on, Gary, it won't take much longer!" Leaf assured him. "We did agree to meet up at 6:30, and it's still 6:28. May, Drew and Paul will be here soon."

"And Dawn." Ash put in quickly. "Don't forget Dawn!"

"Oh yeah, Dawn too!" Dawn was the new girl at school, but since Leaf didn't go to the same school as her friends, she had only met her a couple of times.

"Don't you mean just May, Drew and Dawn?" an irritated voice spoke up from behind them. The four whirled around to see that Paul was already there.

"Hey, where did you come from?" Ash asked. "I thought you were coming with your brother."

"He's over there." Paul pointed to a house where his teenage brother was already ringing the doorbell.

"Isn't he a bit old for this?" Misty asked. "My sisters said they're too old."

"So did mine." Gary chimed in.

Paul just shrugged in response.

"I'm here!" May announced, as she ran up to the group. She was dressed up as a zombie, with face paint to make her face a greenish colour, gloves that made her hands look shriveled, and tattered-looking clothes.

"Finally!" Gary sighed in relief. "Just two more to go!"

"Actually, just one more." Drew showed up, wearing a vampire costume, with a cape, fancy black boots, fake fangs on his teeth, and face paint to make his face paler with shadows under his eyes.

"Where is Dawn?" Gary grumbled.

"You know, Gary, you're not the only one who has to wait. Stop grumbling." Misty ordered.

"It's not my fault she's taking so long! I bet she's going to be a pretty princess or something and is taking her time getting dressed." Gary snarled.

"That is likely..." Misty mused. Dawn always seemed like a girly-girl to her.

"Do you really wanna bet?" May said suddenly, with a mischievous look in her eye.

"Yeah, of course! I'll give you half of my candy if I'm right! When I'm right, I mean."

"It's a deal!" May and Gary shook hands on it.

"What's a deal?" Dawn's voice sounded.

Everyone turned around to face their blue-haired friend.

"Better get ready to give half your candy to May." Leaf muttered in Gary's ear, grinning. He scowled.

Dawn was not dressed up as a princess, but instead as a witch. She was wearing all black, with a large, pointed witch hat, her costume going well with her navy blue hair. Following at her feet was her mother's Umbreon, which was meant to be the dark type Pokemon witches usually had with them. And there was also the fact that her mother wanted Umbreon to keep an eye on her daughter.

"Wow, I love all your costumes!" Dawn squealed. "Drew, you look like a real vampire! May, you look terrifying! Misty, that's an awesome pirate costume!"

"Thanks!" Misty said. "My sisters were trying to force me to dress up as a mermaid princess, but I wouldn't let them." she added, rolling her eyes. She had a fake Chatot perched on her shoulder, an eye-patch, boots, a pirate hat, and was holding a hook. A blue pirate-like jacket both finished her look, and protected her from the chilly night air.

"Wow, Leaf! I thought you were a real super-villain!"

"Thanks, Dawn! You're looking really cool as well!" Leaf complimented. She was dressed up in a purple, green and black outfit with a black mask over her eyes.

"I'm a ghost!" Ash showed off his costume eagerly. He had a bed sheet with two holes for eyes covering him.

"No, really?" Paul said sarcastically.

"Yeah!" Ash confirmed, oblivious to the sarcasm. "My mom said I should ask her before cutting holes in a bed sheet, though. But it was the best costume idea ever!"

"Sure, Ash, sure." Paul said, looking as if he were questioning why he was friends with the black-haired boy.

"I'm a gangster!" Gary announced, grinning, feeling like a genius. He was wearing baggy clothes with a baggy hoodie over-top, and a backwards baseball cap on his head.

"What are you, Paul?" Dawn asked.

"A were-Mightyena." Paul was wearing fake fangs on his teeth, and pointed, wolf-like ears over his ears. There were three scratched on his cheek, made with face paint.

"You don't look much like a were-Mightyena." Dawn remarked, frowning slightly.

"That's cuz I haven't transformed yet." He pointed to the sky. "The sun's not completely down, and the moon's not up."

"Oh..."

"Okay! Let's go get some candy!" Gary punched the air enthusiastically.

They group of eight went from door to door, collecting candy in the bags they were carrying. Ash frequently tripped over the bedsheets, and began thinking that maybe it wasn't the best costume idea after all. But, of course, the increasing amount of candy in his bag kept him in high spirits.

Paul kept glancing up at the sky as if expecting to catch sight of the moon and transform any minute.

May got tired of walking with her arms out in front of her like a zombie, and gave up her zombie act, focusing now on making sure her candy collection kept growing. She gave a reminder to Gary every now and then that she would be taking half the candy he got, which motivated him to try to get the maximum amount of treats possible.

Misty made sure to pull out a cardboard sword from her belt before yelling out trick or treat, adding to the pirate effect.

Drew received multiple compliments on his realistic costume. He did have it professionally made, so it wasn't really a surprise. But after someone at nearly every house had some kind of praise for him, he was starting to get a bit tired of it.

As it got darker, it turned out that the green and purple on Leaf's costume were glowed in the dark, making her costume stand out even more.

It also seemed Umbreon began sticking even closer to Dawn, making her stumble and nearly fall a few times since it was right by her feet.

Finally, with their bags filled with candy, the group paused for a minute.

"Whew, we got quite a lot this year!" Ash commented, looking like he wanted nothing more than to dig into his treats.

"Yeah." Misty agreed. "Should we head back then?"

"Let's do a few more houses." Gary suggested. He evidently wanted even more treats so he would have plenty left over after having to give up half of his to his friend.

"Wait, what about that house?" Drew pointed to one at the end of the road. "We haven't gone to that one yet."

Ash's eyes widened. "No way! We are not going there!"

"Why?"

"Because it's haunted." Leaf answered spookily. "There are always weird things happening there."

"W-what kind of weird things?" May asked timidly.

"Lots of things!" Gary chimed in. "Like, sometimes, there are things floating around outside."

"But look!" Dawn pointed. "It's all decorated for Halloween, and the lights are open. Someone must live there, and they want kids to come over for trick-or-treating."

"But no one knows who lives there! It's probably a ghost who wants kids to come over so it can take them to the spirit world!" Gary stated his theory. The others just stared at him.

"W-w-we can skip that house if you really want." May said nervously. "Maybe there are other houses around here that we haven't been too..."

"What do you mean if I want to!" Gary said indignantly, misunderstanding her statement. "You're the one who's scared!"

"I'm not scared!" May protested, thinking she was being called a scaredy-Meowth.

"Then let's go to that house!" Gary challenged. "We'll see who's the scared one!"

"Wait, Gary!" Ash said, panicking. "We can't all go there! What if the ghost gets us?"

Gary's boldness wavered for less than a second, though no one noticed. "Nobody said anything about you coming along." he pointed out, shrugging.

"I'll come." Drew said, putting on his brave-face. "I don't believe in ghosts. Well, there are ghost-type Pokemon, but not real ghosts."

"I'll come too, then." Misty said. After all, she couldn't be the only one too scared of going to that house.

"Me too!" Leaf didn't want to be left out.

"Um, guys?" Everyone turned to Dawn. "Where's Paul?"

Everyone glanced around, and it was true. One of their friends was missing.

"He chickened-out!" Gary declared.

"But if Paul's scared, shouldn't we be too?" Ash pointed out nervously.

"Nah! He's probably just afraid of the dark or something. Come on, let's go!"

The seven arrived at the 'haunted' house, and cautiously went up to the porch.

The house was decorated even more than the surrounding houses. There were webs and fake Ariados and Spinarak everywhere. Jack-o-lanterns were glowing, grinning creepily, and ghosts hung from tree branches. An angry-looking fake Houndoom stood at the doorsteps, its eyes glowing red.

"Well? Isn't someone gonna ring it?" Misty asked, gesturing to the doorbell. They just stood there silently.

"Come on, Misty, you're the bravest from all of us. Why don't you do it?" Ash pushed his friend to the front.

"W-what? No!" Misty shivered. "Um, Leaf said she would."

"Huh? When did I say that?"

"Oh, come on! Someone just do it!" Gary yelled frustratedly. His yelling must have caught the attention of whoever was inside, because they started to hear movement from within the house.

"I-it's probably nothing!" Drew tried to assure everyone unconvincingly. "It's probably just the person living there, or..."

"RUN!" Ash screamed when a shadow appeared at the window. The seven didn't think twice as they turned around, pushing and shoving, sprinting off the porch. Umbreon was having a difficult time staying at Dawn's feet.

But before they could get away, a monster-like figure stepped into their path. It had large claws, large yellow eyes, huge fangs, and a frightening appearance overall. It let out a howl to the moon, causing the friends to scream even more, scrambling left and right, only stopping when they heard a peculiar sound. The monster was... laughing?

"Wait a minute..." Leaf looked back at it. "Paul?"

Paul ripped off his were-Mightyena mask. "The looks on your faces! Priceless!"

"That wasn't very nice!" Dawn scowled. "Scaring us like that!"

"It's dark and the moon's out. I transformed." Paul explained as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "Besides, you guys were already screaming and running."

"We were running from the ghost!" Ash said in a panicky voice. "It was coming to get us!"

"What, you mean her?" Paul pointed to something behind them. They all turned around to see the house's door was open, and there was an elderly woman standing in the doorway. There were two large bowls of candy floating at either side. Suddenly, two Haunter appeared. From the looks of it, they were the ones holding the bowls while being invisible.

"Candy, anyone?" the woman offered kindly.

"So there wasn't any ghost after all." Misty said as she sorted through her candy pile.

They were all gathered at Leaf's house, sorting and trading their candy.

"Doesn't look like it." Leaf confirmed. "And the things that floated around her house were due to her two Haunter."

"Yeah. I can't believe we actually thought there was a ghost!" Drew chuckled.

"You guys did. I didn't." Paul put in.

"Isn't your brother going to come over and pick you up?" Ash asked his purple-haired friend.

"What, wanna get rid of me?"

"No no! I was just curious, ya know, cuz he's not here yet, and we're done trick-or-treating."

"Ash, he's a teenager. He's probably going to be collecting candy till midnight."

"But isn't there school tomorrow?"

"Like I said, he's a teenager. He doesn't care."

"Oooo, can I have that chocolate?" Leaf picked out a chocolate bar from Paul's candy pile. While he didn't like things that he found were too sweet, there were some treats that he didn't mind. But his friends always helped themselves to whatever he neglected.

"Go ahead." He had already separated the candy he wanted from the candy he didn't. Unwrapping an orange-flavoured lollipop, he stuck it into his mouth. He pulled it out immediately.

"This doesn't taste like orange!" He glared at the candy furiously. "You ought to be ashamed of yourself." he scolded it.

"Poor lollipop..." Ash muttered. "I wouldn't have yelled at it."

"Gary!" May said sweetly. "I believe you have some candy for me!" Gary scowled.

"Why?" Dawn asked, puzzled.

"He bet half his candy that you would dress up as a princess." May explained. "I bet you wouldn't."

"Well, I did tell you I was going to be a witch yesterday." Dawn said.

"Wait, that means May already knew!" Gary realized. "She only bet because she knew what you were gonna be! That's not fair!"

"Candy, please!" May held out her hands, grinning.

The next morning, at school, Ash and May were evidently suffering from stomach-aches.

"Let me guess," Misty said. "You guys ate all your candy at once."

"It wasn't such a good idea." Ash admitted, hands over his tummy.

"I shared a bit with my brother, since I had extra from Gary." May defended. "I didn't eat all of it by myself! Just most of it..."

"Too bad." Dawn frowned. "I brought some of my candy from last night to share with everyone, because my mom said it's not good to eat it all myself. I guess you guys are feeling to sick to have some."

May and Ash groaned.

There you guys have it! One Halloween night!

I'll try to make up for not updating sooner, but I'm still busy with non-fanfiction-related stuff too. Please understand if I update late or miss an update. Look at the bright side! Since each chapter is a one-shot, it's not like I'm leaving you guys with cliffhangers, right?

Please review, and thanks for reading!

Bye bye for now! And have a smiling day! :)