Mari & Ilna-you're the best.
McRollers-thanks for reading.
The Sincerest Form of Flattery (1/2)
"Here's some money for the mall," Steve said as he pulled his wallet from his back pocket.
DJ shook his head. "It's ok, Dad. I have my allowance money."
"You don't have to spend that on your Halloween costume," Steve insisted. "Save it for something else."
The eleven year old held his ground. "It's ok."
"You can both put your wallets away," Danny said in a tone that made it clear he wouldn't hear another word about it. "This one is on me."
"You don't have to do that. I can give him …" Steve started but Danny cut him off with a wave of the hand.
"I have been let into the inner circle of the secret Halloween costume and I take that very seriously," he told Steve. "We are going to go to the mall and procure all of the necessary accoutrements for the perfect ensemble."
Steve's eyebrows knit together. Did you accidentally swallow a thesaurus?"
"I wish I had time to stand here and debate with you, Steven, but alas, this fine young lad and I have an important quest to complete. We must go forth to the mall immediately," Danny said with a flourish and a bow.
Steve looked at his son and rolled his eyes with a smile. "He's been watching the Great British Bake Off with Aunt Gabby again."
DJ chuckled.
"Your chariot awaits," Danny said as he opened the front door. As DJ headed towards the Camaro Danny asked, "Do you want me to grab some pizzas after we're through at the mall?"
Steve shook his head. "I'm gonna do some burgers and chicken on the grill. You guys are welcome to join us. I'll call Gabby and let her know."
Thanks." Danny pulled his keys from his pocket. "I'll see you in a few hours."
"You're still not gonna tell me what the costume is?" Steve asked.
Danny barked a laugh. "Not a chance."
As he waved goodbye and climbed in the driver's side of his car for a change DJ asked, "He hasn't guessed my costume yet has he? I want it to be a surprise."
Danny beamed. "You're safe. He has no idea you've decided to go dressed as me."
"Thanks for helping me with this, Aunt Catherine," Jacob said as they let themselves into the Rollins condo. "I really appreciate it."
"My pleasure," Catherine replied.
Jacob bit his lip. "Are you sure Aunt Elizabeth won't be mad?"
"Mad?" Catherine stopped and looked the teenager directly in the eyes. "She is gonna be the opposite of mad. She'll be thrilled you want to dress up as her for Halloween. She's gonna think it's amazing. I'll be surprised if she doesn't cry."
"Good." Jacob sighed with relief. "Well, not good that I might make her cry. But good that it might make her happy enough to cry. Because it's ok to cry sometimes …" Jacob thought for a few seconds about how to get himself out of his word spiral and finally settled on, "You know what I mean."
"Yes." Catherine chuckled. "I do."
They headed down the hallway towards the master bedroom.
"We need to choose an outfit that will be immediately recognizable as hers," Catherine said as they entered the room, turned on the light and headed for the closet.
"What if she realized it's missing?" he asked.
"I've got that covered," Catherine said. "I asked her if I could borrow something for a meeting tomorrow and she told me to take whatever I wanted." She looked through a few hangers and pulled out a navy dress with very thin pinstripes. "How about this?"
When her suggestion was met with silence she glanced at Jacob and saw his eyes focused on an item further down the rack.
"Did something else catch your eye?" she asked.
Jacob smiled softly and pointed at a denim overall style jumper. "That's what she was wearing the day she hired me at Tutor Time," he said softly. "Along with a blouse covered in apples that some of the students from that year bought her."
Catherine scanned the rack. "This blouse?"
"That's the one," Jacob said.
Catherine grabbed the two items then looked at Jacob's feet. "I think you might be on your own for shoes. There's no way mom's will fit you."
"That's ok." Jacob beamed as he looked at the Converse sneakers in the front of the closet that Elizabeth often wore to Tutor Time and thought about a very similar pair he had at home. "I got that covered."
"I can't believe we have to scrap our costume idea two days before Halloween and start from scratch," Kendra said as she, Linda and Grace walked into a local costume shop.
"I know." Grace sighed. " I thought Beetlejuice, Lydia and Astrid would make a great trio costume."
Linda frowned. "Unfortunately, so did at least three other trios going to the same party."
"So we'll just come up with a new idea," Grace said confidently. "How hard can it be?"
Thirty minutes later the three very dejected girls stopped in front of the last rack.
"I take it back," Grace said. "This is harder than I thought it would be."
"Most of the good trio ideas are already rented," Kendra said. "Even if we could recreate them from scratch it still means there are other groups out there wearing them that we might run into. I want something no one else is wearing."
Linda pulled a striped jumpsuit from the rack. "I guess we could go as two cops and a robber," she said unenthusiastically.
"Might work," Kendra said, trying to put a positive spin on things. She pulled out the accompanying police uniform and cringed at the dome-shaped helmet. "This looks so old-timey though."
"If we're gonna dress like police officers I'd rather look like the task force," Linda sighed.
Grace looked at her friends and a smile lit her entire face.
"Why not? We can dress like the task force," Grace said excitedly. "I mean, we know where to get the costumes, right?"
"You sure they wouldn't be mad?" Kendra asked.
"Mad? No way," Grace said. "They'd be thrilled."
"Only problem is there's four of them and three of us," Linda pointed out. "Who doesn't get included?"
Grace's smile grew. She'd been the first person DJ had confided in when he decided he wanted to dress up as Danny for Halloween. "No worries there. I know who the fourth will be."
TBC on Friday
Find all our stories (in chronological order!) on our website: marirealmcroll dot wixsite dot com backslash real-mcroll
Or in the McRoll in the REAL World community here on fanfiction dot net Find us on Tumblr: mcrollintherealworld dot tumblr dot com
You can join our mailing list by emailing us realmcroll at yahoo dot com with: Add me, please! in the subject line. Or just drop us a line to say hi! We love hearing from our readers.
