Notes: I wrote this for the anonymous drabble contest at the sortofbeautiful LiveJournal community, which had a 500-word limit for every entry. Because I had to stay anonymous until voting was done for the winners I'm only now posting it, but the Halloween theme was still appropriate at the time I wrote it, LOL. We'll just pretend it's not Christmas time now...

At a table in Embry's yard where he, Quil, Jared, Kim, and Paul were all carving pumpkins with music playing and several lanterns lit, two pumpkins were still sitting untouched.

"I thought Jake would be here by now," Jared said.

"Well, he had to get Bella first," Quil said. "They're probably doing it or something."

When Jacob and Bella finally showed up, Bella greeted everyone nicely, but they quickly saw she seemed to be giving Jacob the cold shoulder.

"Think you guessed wrong, Quil," Embry muttered, making him laugh. Bella and Jacob looked confused, missing what was funny.

"Somebody change the music," Paul grumbled, stabbing an eye into his pumpkin. "I've been burned out on Gnarls Barkley for like a year."

Jacob pointed to Embry's CD binder on the table. "Could you hand me that, Bell?"

Unobliging, she just leaned back to give him more room to reach for it himself, which he did sighing heavily.

"Uh...Trouble?" Embry asked subtly, looking at them.

Jacob grinned, flipping through the music selection. "I'm getting the silent treatment until I repent or something."

"What happened?" Kim asked.

Bella explained, "He came into my window wearing a ski mask. With a big knife."

Quil and Jared howled with laughter.

"I thought it would be funny," Jacob said, and couldn't help but smile a little. "And it was. You shrieked."

She shoved him hard in the side as the others kept laughing.

"I said I'm sorry. Seriously, I didn't know it would freak you out that much."

Bella just shook her head, then looked at her pumpkin thoughtfully. "I can't decide what to do..."

"Make it scary," Jared said.

"You will piss yourself when you see mine," Jacob promised.

He laughed doubtfully. "What's it going to be?"

"Your face."

As the boys snickered, Bella and Kim exchanged an annoyed look.

"Ah, yes," Jacob said, finding a good CD.

"I'll get it," Bella offered, finally looking more forgiving as she held out her hand.

He smiled and kissed her cheek, handing her the disc. Embry and Quil started talking about something that had happened at school while she went to change the CD. Then Jacob didn't see it when she stumbled over a rake on the ground and fell.

"Woah!" said Paul. Everyone sat up straight to look over at her while Jacob turned.

"You okay, honey?" he called.

She didn't answer.

In fact, she still hadn't moved.

Everyone frowned. "Shit," Jacob muttered, getting up and rushing over to her.

Her eyes were closed. Could she have hit her head landing on a rock? He shook her, saying loudly, "Bella?"

For another moment she lay still. Then her mouth curved into a smile; she opened her eyes, looked up at him, and started laughing.

"Ha!" said Embry. "Payback!"

"Jesus!" Jacob said as she sat up. "That? Not funny!"

"Actually, it is pretty fucking funny," Quil said through his uncontrollable laughing.

Jacob stood up and smacked him across the back of the head, which only made everyone laugh more. Then he finally smiled again and helped Bella off the ground, picked her up briefly to kiss her while she kept giggling a little against his lips.