It was a dark autumn night in little Hometown. Not much happens at this hour. Everyone is usually fast asleep in their homes... well, almost everyone.

December "Dess" Holiday, eldest child of the Holiday family, was never one to fully follow traditions. While she inherited her mother's protective nature, there was no denying that she had a wild side like her father. When her meek, sensitive little sister Noelle wasn't looking, she'd join in on whatever shenanigans the other neighborhood kids would find themselves in and make sure things don't get too crazy. This often put her at odds with her more strict mother, who, as Hometown's mayor, would rather have a quiet town where children did what their parents told them to. She wasn't malicious, just very traditional in a lot of ways.

Tonight, Dess found herself lying on her bed, staring at the flickering light of her ceiling as she listened to her MP3 player on shuffle. Although it was past her bedtime, she found herself too absorbed in her early teenage angst to start dozing off.

However, just as her eyes started getting heavy, she heard a knock on her window. This could only mean one thing. Dess let out a sigh, rolled out of bed and looked outside. Lo and behold, there they were.

"hi."

Kris Dreemurr, the only human in town, was the resident troublemaker. While not one for conversations, the kid loved a good prank, and would constantly play tricks on the other townsfolk, much to the mayor's chagrin. Dess, on the other hand, was often cautiously willing to see their pranks play out, so long as Noelle wasn't the target. Right now, she was a bit too tired to eagerly go along.

"Urgh, what do you want, Kris? Don't you know it's past midnight?"

"come out. i have a thing to show you."

"How'd you even get past the front gate anywa-"

Kris eagerly showed her their shoddy makeshift crowbar as they made a sly grin.

"Oh, of course," Dess responded. "Look, normally I'd be willing to humor you, but I was just about to go to bed. Also my mom's been a lot stricter when it comes to my curfew after our last incident."

Kris continued to stand there.

"So uhhh, yeah, you should probably find a different partner in crime. Why not ask your brother? You two get into trouble all the time."

"he's sleeping. don't want to wake him up." Kris replied sheepishly.

"That's... surprisingly considerate of you, but still."

Kris just continued to stand there and stare at Dess.

"Go on, get."

Kris walked forward with crowbar in hand and began to pry Dess' window open.

"W-w-wait, what are you doing!?"

After opening it wide enough, Kris crawled through the window into Dess' room.

"Dude, get out, we're gonna get in trouble!"

Kris ignored Dess and started pulling her arm.

"let's go."

"Wh-no, I don't wanna go right now!"

"we're going."

"No."

"yes."

"No, we're not."

"we are."

It soon became clear that Kris was not gonna take no for an answer. Eventually, Dess gave in.

"Okay, fine, I'll go see whatever you wanna show me. But if we get caught sneaking out, it's your fault, got that?"

"yay."

Kris waved their arms up and down and crawled back out of the window. Dess reluctantly followed them as she was guided to parts unknown.