"Uh-oh."

Right after gulping that, Willow glared at Buffy still admiring the French countess costume where it was displayed on a mannequin stand in Sunnydale's newest Halloween store. She irately snapped at the Slayer, "You just had to say it, didn't you?"

"Huh?" Buffy gaped at her redhead friend looking thunderous for seemingly no good reason.

Frantically going over the last minute or so of her normal spontaneous prattle, Buffy couldn't remember anything bad she must've said, just how Snyder deserved to see some of the 'volunteered as chaperones' students dress up as revenge in really unusual outfits tomorrow night that'd be guaranteed to make the tyrannical principal's head explode when he saw them—

Buffy followed Willow's grim gaze at where Xander was just standing there in the middle of the costumes with a waaaaay creepy smile on his face while he studied both her and Wils. A cold shiver ran down Buffy's spine despite how she was supposed to be the bane of the Hellmouth's monsters, because that exceedingly evil grin was getting wider and wider by the second the longer Xander kept eyeing the girls.

Obviously, he'd been struck by some sort of horrible inspiration caused by Buffy's previous innocent comments and now she and Wils were going to find out exactly what it was, however hair-raising it might be.

Several minutes later, Willow was still trying to get herself under control in Xander's affectionate hug even though she continued to belly-laugh with shaking shoulders, face pressed against his flannel shirtfront in her unceasing giggles.

As for Buffy, she had both hands clapped against her mouth to stifle her own guffaws. It was only when she glanced over at the female aristocratic costume Buffy had earlier planned to buy and wear on Halloween to impress Angel that she sobered up a bit. If all of them went along with Xander's hilarious idea, that wouldn't happen.

Buffy mentally balanced the prospect of Angel seeing her dressed up as a lovely noblewoman versus what Xan had just suggested, and it was simply no contest. Not only was it gonna be completely hysterical and probably go down in student legend at Sunnydale High, 'Troll' Snyder would be guaranteed to pop a blood vessel the very instant he laid eyes on the trio in their particular costumes.

"I'm in!" Buffy happily declared, "Let's start looking around here to find all the stuff we'll need!"

Nodding with a gleeful smirk on his face as he let go of Willow also eager to get started, Xander and that young woman separated to begin their enthusiastic searches throughout the entire store, if necessary.

Up at the counter, Ethan Rayne watched with concealed bafflement at how the Slayer and her two friends were gathering up various articles of clothing and other accouterments from his Chaos-imbued stock. They weren't selecting specific costumes, but rather bits and pieces from them that to Ethan didn't appear to fit any known fictional characters from books and other mass media of the twentieth century or before.

Most mystifying of all, these three would-be chavs were clearly having the time of their lives, holding up their selections for the others to give their opinions of yea or nay. It eventually wound up with a large load of fabrics and additional paraphernalia dumped upon the counter in front of Ethan, who put a polite expression upon his face while he rang up the total on the cash register.

Absently shutting the register drawer as he watched three young people leave his store with their purchases, Ethan consoled himself with the fact that when Janus was summoned on Halloween night, those little wankers were sure to still be affected by their new costumes. Yes, indeed, there'd be lots of delightful anarchy let loose among Sunnydale, including his latest customers regardless of whatever they might have dressed up as, Ethan chuckled.

The next evening, Joyce Summers put away the last of the dinner plates in the dishwasher, listening to the loud laughter coming from Buffy's room upstairs with its open door. That had been Joyce's condition for Xander joining in up there on the preparation of their costumes after they'd eaten, in readiness for leaving for the high school any minute now.

Another noisy burst of mirth issuing overhead made Joyce smile to herself, albeit with increasing puzzlement. Just what was so funny among Xander, Buffy, and Willow? None of the children, even her own daughter, would tell Joyce at the dinner table exactly what they'd be wearing while escorting younger trick-or-treaters around town, merely sending each other immensely satisfied looks in between bites of their food.

Wiping down the kitchen counter with a dishrag, Joyce heard from behind a sudden rush of multiple footsteps coming down the stairs into the hallway. Ah, finally, those three conspirators were going to reveal just what was the big surprise—

"Okay, Mom, see you soon! We'll come back with lots of candy!"

Joyce froze right in the middle of turning around to observe her daughter and friends in their Halloween costumes. That excited announcement was definitely something Buffy would say to her, except there was one rather remarkable detail about this statement.

Mainly, that it was delivered in a falsetto voice.

Joyce slowly finished her turn to examine the blonde standing right there in the hallway. This individual was tastefully clad in a fashionable girl's blouse covering a curvy figure, matching skirt, flats, makeup skillfully applied down to the subdued lipstick, and finishing off with a trendy hairstyle.

All in all, Xander Harris in his flaxen wig and female garb (including the bra) was about as good as a counterpart of Buffy Summers as anyone with an actual Y chromosome and being nearly a foot taller could get.

Taking a deep breath, Joyce switched her flabbergasted stare at where her darling child standing next to a transvestite Xander smirked at her mother from under a scarlet wig. Wearing a teenage girl's outfit straight out of the Sears catalog which ordinarily Buffy would've died first than ever don, this little minx widened her eyes and asked anxiously just as a certain Jewish straight-A student would've, "Are you feeling all right, Mrs. Summers? Maybe you should lie down, just to be on the safe side!"

Giving Buffy a quite dirty look, Joyce then beheld the most ridiculous sight of them all, how Willow Rosenberg was concealing her scarlet coiffure underneath a brown wig and giving Mrs. S her brightest smile. This jaunty grin was sent over a garish Hawaiian shirt with her breasts bound under this, baggy cargo pants, sneakers, and…

"What did you shove in there?!" Joyce's appalled tone demanded, with this woman unable to take her horrified gaze away from the absurdly oversized bulge swelling the crotch of Willow's pants.

Still maintaining his silly high-pitched voice throughout, Xander yet answered with a masterful deadpan, "Two pairs of my socks, Mom. I suggested one more, to make sure there'd be a perfect match—"

"That's enough," Joyce declared in a weary sigh, waving them along in a gesture of equal cynicism towards the direction of the front door. "Don't stay out too late, honey. I'm positive that tomorrow morning, bright and early, I'll be getting a phone call from your school inviting me and you there to have a little chat concerning your costumes. Won't that be fun?"

Xander, Willow, and Buffy managed to hold in their sniggers until they got outside and the door closed after them, leaving Joyce to wonder what she'd done to deserve this. Hopefully, that would be the end of the madness for the rest of the night, at least in her vicinity. Sunnydale High and its occupants could look after themselves quite nicely, for all she cared. Shaking her head, Joyce went off to pour herself a decent nightcap to settle her nerves.

For the Scooby Gang, the utter disbelief shown upon Principal Snyder's unlovely features when he irreversibly understood how three menaces to humanity had just undermined his authority in front of a crowd of kids and their parents made it all worthwhile. Even better was the quick check around by him at the other adults there, consisting mainly of a bunch of California liberals who'd instantly leap to the high-schoolers' defense against any Sunnydale School Board reprimands, resulting in He-Who-Inspired-STTNG's-Ferengis retiring in absolute defeat from the field of battle, the bitter taste of ashes in his mouth.

Of course, there'd be retribution from that incensed principal later on, but the Scoobies were having too much fun that Halloween for the next hour or so to care.

Right up to when Ethan Rayne summoned Janus to the Hellmouth.

Two weeks later, Buffy Summers was walking through the school's main hallway on her way to fifth period class. Through the mob of other students also in the corridor, Buffy saw Xander and Larry amiably talking with each other while waiting together in line at the water cooler. She noted with approval how nice her best male friend looked in his new dress, one of the several her mom had picked out for Xander when they'd gone shopping at the mall the first weekend after Halloween.

Buffy frowned, remembering all the permanent effects of that jerk Ethan and his stupid spell had caused even when Giles broke the Janus statuette and her Watcher's former pal made a successful getaway to also escape any serious consequences of his fun. Oh, sure, Giles admitted to severely beating up Ethan around then, but that was far less than he deserved especially when the Scoobies had to deal with the ensuing fallout.

Probably the most minor of this was Xander's current inability to wear anything but women's clothing, due to developing a truly painful all-over rash whenever he even attempted to put on some pants. As might be expected, showing up at SHS in his new attire the first day after Halloween made Xander an instant target for the school's bullies. Fortunately, the other part of the Janus spell outcome when they'd all switched bodies to complement their costumes allowed Xander to retain part of Buffy's Slayer strength when the Chaos magic stopped.

Better still, being seen handily clobbering a half-dozen guys all at once made the school's football coach immediately draft Xander onto the team where he ran roughshod over anybody in his path. Buffy smiled, remembering SHS's last game when Xan scored twenty touchdowns all by himself before the mercy rule was applied. Now that the town appeared to have a winning season for the first time in decades, nobody even batted an eye at him wearing dresses, much less Larry also coming out as gay.

Buffy was glad for Xander, particularly since she had her own problems. She couldn't have gotten Willow's smarts, oh, no. Why should Janus miss the chance for some more fun?

To make matters worse, she'd manifested Wil's magic the very same moment Angel had shown up the night after Halloween and given her the absolute heebie-jeebies. The last time she'd ever seen her former boyfriend, his hair had been mostly burnt off from the fireball she'd accidentally blasted him with, running for his unlife before a Slayer now chock-full of the supernatural mojo which absolutely detested vampires turned him into ashes.

Giles soon sympathetically passed along to Buffy the telephone message from Angel announcing his departure for Los Angeles to continue fighting the good fight against evil there, and expressed his best wishes to the entire Scooby Gang. Incidentally, if Buffy was in the future ever visiting her hometown again, please call a full day in advance so Angel could find a nice, deep grave to hide in.

Sighing in her self-pity about losing Angel, Buffy still walking down the hallway was shortly cheered up a little by seeing the school's newest power couple. Willow and Cordelia, followed by the latter's minions, were going to their own class with their free arms around each others' waist.

This stunning upshot to the Halloween bedlam was all due to Willow acquiring a physical aftereffect of Ethan Rayne's prank, unlike Xander and Buffy's mystical remnants. It'd become quite obvious the first time in the girls' shower room when Willow had unconcernedly dropped her towel and walked into the cubicle to lather up in front of everyone.

All while a certain part of her newly-acquired anatomy had then uncurled itself to hang nearly to Willow's knees…

A strangled "MINE!" from Cordelia Chase managed to prevent a riot and gained Sunnydale High its latest Queen and Queen.

Contemplating that, Buffy paused in the hallway to rub at her itching hairline before entering the classroom. When she'd investigated that odd tickling sensation this morning, it showed the Halloween fun and games weren't quite over yet. Mind you, there was good reason it'd taken so long to it to appear.

So, was she going to keep on dyeing her roots, or just let her hair grow out to its new color exactly like Willow's auburn shade?