Chapter Six : Double, Double Toil and Trouble

It was a yearly tradition that all of the kids got together for halloween a week in advance to plan out the event. Now that they were all in high school, they had more freedom to do what they wanted, but there were still limitations. No one was doing any big or elaborate costumes, because everyone knew that shit was expensive.

Max would be paying for his costume with money he worked for himself. Nurf's mom's salary as released convict was not that great. And Harrison wasn't even supposed to be out on the "devil's day" and had to rely on the kindness of his friends, as well as hide any costume from his parents.

So it was a long-honored ritual to do all of their holiday shopping at thrift stores. The group would actually thrift store hop, scanning all of the local stores before they started travelling farther away if they couldn't find something passable.

Some of the kids picked specific characters and so were harder to search for. Other kids were something generic or common and were easily appeased. Preston was, by far, the pickiest of them all, and ended up touching a couple of the costumes (especially his own) up with his sewing skills.

They were beginning to grow out of trick-or-treating, but, fuck it, free candy, right? No matter what the group would do, they would all enjoy themselves because they were doing it together.

As part of the SGA at Thomas Nelson High, it was Neil's job to help with the school's "safe Halloween". Each year, the county assigned each high school a different age group to cater to and had to decorate the halls accordingly and run a safe, indoor trick-or-treating experience.

This year, Thomas Nelson got toddlers until age seven. The idea was that children wouldn't get lost on the streets or be exposed to anything unduly frightening. Max thought that sometimes kids just needed a good scare to keep them on their toes or keep them from doing stupid shit, but that's probably why he wasn't a parent.

Bored and not wanting to leave Neil to fend for himself, Preston and Max decided to stay after and help as well. The theme happened to be Disney this time.

Max couldn't hold in his snort as he slapped the fifth Olaf sticker onto a blank part of the wall. "Why couldn't we have the older kids? Did you hear that Lesley Heights got to do a fucking haunted house this year? I would have chainsawed the fuck outta those assholes."

Preston snorted from where he was taping paper snowflakes onto the lockers.

"Max, you scare the shit out of people on a fairly regular basis," he laughed. "You don't need to look for excuses to do it more."

Max sighed. "What if I want to?"

Preston bumped Max's hip with his own.

Max gave his boy a cheeky grin to show he was mostly joking. Not like he didn't know already anyway. They worked a bit more before Max interrupted their peace again.

"And aren't I a little too scary for this baby stuff anyway?" Max gestured at himself.

He had decided to dress up as a vampire this year. He was wearing dress pants and one of those old frilly dress-shirts Hollywood tried to convince you the pirates would wear. ("I know the pirates did not give a shit about the state of their clothes. They didn't fucking bathe… Like ever.") Over the white shirt, he wore a bright red cape that he was surprised they had at Goodwill. He had decided to forgo the stupid plastic fangs, knowing that they would annoy him the entire time.

Preston had joked that they should spray him with body glitter. ("You could be like the vampires from Twilight! Everyone always said Edward Cullen looked 'super yummy'." "Preston, I will fucking make sure your body is never found.") That didn't happen. Obviously.

The drama king himself decided that he wanted to dress up as Veronica from the Heathers.

Yes, Max knew exactly who that was. Yes, Max knew almost the whole soundtrack. You don't just date the biggest theatre geek in the whole universe and not walk away knowing the words to Candy Store. That's just not how things work.

Preston had managed to find a blue plaid skirt at a thrift store a half hour away from town and repurposed one of his grandmother's old blazers from when she went to that all-girl's catholic school. He bought knee-high blue socks and found some of his grandmother's old heels as well.

Max was having trouble looking away from his boyfriend's long, long legs.

Neil's frequent clearing of his throat or elbow jabs to his stomach certainly helped though.

Neil was dressed as Frodo from Lord of the Rings. He too had somehow found a green cloak to wear over some brown shorts. He refused to go barefoot though, so he was borrowing his dad's flip flops to complete the look.

They continued trading jokes and goofing off a bit as they finished decorating the Frozen hall and set up buckets of candy and stickers and such. When four o'clock rolled around, the three were ready with treats to pass out in their hallway.

The children began to trickle in, some still holding their parents' hands and some able to carry their own bag/bucket for their goodies.

One five year old girl came up to Max to get something from him.

"What are you?" she asked. "I'm Strawberry Shortcake."

Max could tell with the aggressive amounts of pink and strawberry stickers on her face.

"I'm a vampire." Max said with a sharp smile.

The girl looked at him, obviously confused. "You don't look like a vampire at all! Vampires are supposed to be scary and bloody."

Max shrugged. "I guess I'm just not that scary, kid."

Neil and Preston snickered together, not fazed at all when Max leveled them with a cool look.

"Oh!" The girl snapped. "I know! You're a prince! A handsome prince and- you!"

She pointed at Preston. "I guess you're the princess? You're not really dressed as a princess, but I guess that's okay!"

Preston blushed a little. It seemed it was Max's time to laugh while the girl flounced away, obviously happy with figuring out the greatest mysteries of life.

"Are you my princess, baby?"

The boy shoved his shoulder. "Quit it, Max!"

Neil was on all fours, wheezing into the floor. A passing kid rubbed his back and asked if he was okay, which just made it harder to catch his breath.

Preston rolled his eyes. "I am surrounded by idiots."

He ignored as Max gasped, pretending he was offended.

An older boy approached them soon after. He thanked them all for the candy they each give them, but then he turned curious eyes to the Playwright. "Excuse me, but you're a boy, right?"

"Yep!"

"I didn't know boys could wear skirts. Isn't it weird?"

Preston knelt down to face the boy better. "It's different. But it's not bad or anything. People can wear whatever they want! People might not like it, but you should do what makes you happy. I really liked this character so I wanted to dress up as her. Is that weird?"

The little boy shook his head. "I really like Buzz Lightyear so I dressed up like him this year!"

"It's such a cool costume! You look really good!" Preston smiled at the boy.

"Thank you! I think next year I'm gonna be Rapunzel! Thanks, Mister!"

The three waved as the boy ran off.

"Alright, I'm ready to go now," Max huffed.

Nurf swung by to pick them up after the Treat-Along was done at Thomas Nelson. He was dressed in a large Captain America Costume they had found. (Minimal tearing. He argued that the rips added character, but Preston said that he couldn't let his friend look like a hooligan.)

They had decided in advance that they would all meet up at Nerris' house. They would trick-or-treat in their neighborhood since the neighbors were generous and gave out a lot of candy.

When they arrived, they were ushered past the decorated porch and into the living room. The rest of their friends were lounging around on the couch and the floor.

Neil Jr. quickly stood up when he caught sight of them. "Hey! You guys are here now!"

The boy was dressed up as Dipper from Gravity Falls, his new obsession. It was mostly just an excuse to draw the Big Dipper on his forehead. He was able to buy the boy's hat from Hot Topic, but the rest of the getup was all salvaged. Cargo shorts and orange t-shirts were not particularly difficult to come by. The hardest thing to find was the blue vest.

"Yep," Max smirked. "You all look nice."

Nerris was dressed in one of their old Renaissance Festival outfits. They were some kind of faerie-merchant or something, with a big skirt and layers and fake pointed ears. Dolph was dressed in a lab coat, dress pants, and makeup scars on his face. He was supposed to be an evil scientist, though Max was going to tease him later about looking like Dexter without the red hair. Harrison was dressed in a large black robe that Preston had embroidered with the Gryffindor house crest and colors so that he could be Harry Potter. Nikki was dressed as Lara Croft with cargo pants, fake gun holsters, and a tight white tank top. Her hair was slicked back in the signature ponytail.

"You all ready?"

The kids all cheered.

Trick-or-treating was uneventful, but fun. Their pillowcases and bags were all filled to the brim. There were a couple of adults who had given them the stink-eye.

"Aren't y'all a little too old for trick-or-treating?"

Max told them to kindly mind their fucking business.

They were swiftly running out ground to cover and were getting tired of walking. They stopped to debate on what they were going to do next when Nikki got a text.

"Oh! It's Becky from Chemistry."

From (Re)Becca

*yo niks, come over i'm having this party thing

To (Re)Becca

*can i bring some friends?

From (Re)Becca

*yeah idc just hurry up, it's kinda boring and i need someone to talk to

"New plan, guys!" Nikki exclaimed. "We're crashing a party!"

There were some cheers around while others just shrugged. They might as well.

They hightailed it back to Nerris' house, explained to their parents, promised that they'd be safe, and all packed into Nikki's car and Nurf's truck.

When they arrived, they could hear the music from outside the house.

Max looked at each of them in turn. "Ground rules. Not a drop of alcohol if you're under 16. And anyone drinking gets no more than one beer or whatever. Don't leave your drinks or food anywhere and only drink from something that was bottled and is unopened. Go nowhere completely alone. If shit goes down, we're getting the fuck outta here. I doubt this is going to be a wild scene, but I want all of you safe. Do you understand?"

Everyone nodded or shrugged. They knew better than to get wasted at some random party or trust anyone they didn't know.

Nikki led the way and opened the door.

It wasn't locked, Max noted in distaste. Not that anyone would hear any knocking with the music blasting, but still. He hung at the back, letting his kids get in, before shutting and locking the door behind him.

"Niks!" A girl cried when they rounded the corner to the kitchen. She threw her arms around Nikki and hugged her close.

"Hey Becky!" Nikki yelled to be heard.

Max rolled his eyes and left Nikki to deal with her - at the very least tipsy - friend. He grabbed his boyfriend's hand and dragged him to a corner where there weren't a lot of kids hanging about. They got some curious looks, but Max couldn't care less. They laughed and talked softly in the corner as he surveyed the room from around his boyfriend's slim frame.

Nerris, Dolph, and Neil Jr. ended up curled up together on the couch shortly after finding that there were no good snacks. Nurf was being chatted up by this blonde girl that was dressed as - Max raised his eyebrows - Harley Quinn. But with extremely short shorts.

Max smirked. "Go, Nurfington!"

Max could just see Harrison and Neil standing in the kitchen through the open arch. Nikki was still being attacked by her friend.

There was nothing much to actually do. The songs were bland and they didn't know a lot of them. There was no dancing. Half of the teens were asleep or drinking anyway.

The group had only been there for an hour or so before Max could tell that everyone was bored and tired. Nerris and Neil Jr. had actually fallen asleep at some point. Nurf had abandoned the random Harley to lay on the couch on the other side of Dolph.

"Alright, this shit blows. Let's go home."