AN: Hey everyone. I know I've been gone for a while and I'm sorry for not updating sooner. Between work, vacation, and a cross country move, I've been a bit busy. I hope you guys are still in the mood for Halloween cause I've got at least one more Halloween chapter to go. I promise I haven't stopped writing the story.

I will stress this one more time, if you do not know what animal Layla or any of the other main characters are please read my authors notes, especially the one before chapter 14 if you do not know what Layla, Miles, and Heather are. I will post all of the main and reoccurring OCs one more time here, but then I will not answer the question again.

Layla - Gorilla

Miles - Porcupine

Heather - Koala

Sasha - Mouse, specifically the white mouse in the film.

Sean - Raccoon

Stevie - Raccoon

Joey DeMarco - Gorilla

Alex - Gorilla

Now that that has been addressed, I hope you all enjoy this chapter.

This chapter was titled after the song Take Me Home Tonight by Eddie Money.

Thank you for the follows, favorites, and reviews.

Happy reading.

Chapter Thirty: Take Me Home Tonight

Miles' POV

The weeks passed, and before we knew it, we were approaching on Halloween. All of the plans were all set and everyone was involved in some way. Heather took care of all of the extensive paperwork and minute details while Buster took care of all the imaginative components. The only thing that changed from the development stage to planning was the kid's scavenger hunt, which was changed into a massive trick-or-treating event that had been headed by Rosita. Lilac Terrance Park would be turned into Halloweentown overnight for children to enjoy during the day, and if they weren't too exhausted, they could enjoy Disneyland that night. Everyone had been assigned to either work the scavenger hunt or the park. None of us were doing both, but when our shifts were over, we were able to enjoy the event we didn't work on.

"So which Halloweentown did you guys end up turning the park into?" I asked Layla as we headed into the theatre. We had ran into each other halfway and decided to walk together the rest of the way.

"The one from the Disney Channel movie." She answered, "It's more loosely inspired though, we thought we'd have a little more creative freedom with that one instead of doing it based on Nightmare Before Christmas, not that we don't have references to it though."

"Johnny working there with you?" I asked her, even though I already knew the answer was no. She didn't know I already knew and was aware of the specific reason why.

"He has a late night shift working the scavenger hunt." She responded, before looking down at her watch and then looking back up at me, "You're late to meet Ash."

"I know." I nodded, "I don't think she'll mind too much though."

"Seeing as you're late every time you have to meet her, I'm sure she's very used to it." Layla shook her head, "I have to get going though, Uncle Joey's here today."

"Oh yeah, you might want to save Johnny." I laughed. Mr. DeMarco wasn't too fond of Johnny, even though he had nothing against him personally, he just hadn't warmed up to him dating Layla. He seemed to dislike him less than Alex though.

Unbeknownst to Layla, she had found herself unwillingly in the middle of a love triangle. She had Johnny on one side, who loved her and was days away from proposing, and Alex on the other, who was trying to win her back because he didn't like that someone else had her and that she had absolutely no interest in him. Mr. DeMarco, Mr. Maddox, Buster, Johnny, and I all noticed what had been happened over the past several weeks. Layla had been so busy working that she hadn't had any time to step away for a moment and take in everything happening around her. She didn't know that Sasha and Mike were getting married in December or that Ash and I were dating. She had no idea that Heather agreed to go out with Buster again or that we had a new official member of the group in our midst, a raccoon pastry chef named Stevie, who was starting to turn the head of another in our small circle of trust. Our outlandish and brash Sean had finally found someone to silence him, not that he had found the courage to speak to her yet. It wasn't surprising that she had missed so much, Layla had always lost her sense of reality when she was in the middle of a project.

"He can manage on his own." Layla replied smiling, "Joey's a big softy."

"Yeah, that's the first thing I think when I come face to face with your uncle." I retorted sarcastically.

"You don't have a problem with Johnny's dad." She remarked.

"No, you're right I don't." I agreed, "I don't find him intimating, he talks more."

"None of the DeMarcos have ever been very social." Buster commented joining us, "Layla gets her outspokenness and talkative nature from her father's side of the family." He looked over to Layla, "Johnny's in rehearsal room two, if you want to see him before he leaves."

"Thanks." Layla told Buster and ran off to go meet Johnny.

Once she was out of earshot, Buster told me, "Everything's all set up with Disney for the proposal, they just need to work out the final arrangements."

"I'll talk to Johnny about it tonight when we go." I responded, "Ash know I'm late?"

"No, she's been too busy with work to notice the time." Buster sighed, "I can't keep overloading her with work every time you lose track of time, eventually she'll catch on."

"I just have to finish this and then-" I started, but Buster stopped me.

"Finish what?" Buster asked, "What are you doing other than the scavenger hunt? I don't have you on any other assignments or performances."

"I promise it's not anything illegal or that I'm going back to how I used to be." I assured him, "It's just something I have to do, I need you to cover for me until I'm done."

"Are you alright?" Buster asked concerned.

I nodded, "Yeah, it's nothing like that. It's just something I'm doing for myself and I'd like to keep it that way."

"Secrets don't last long here." Buster told me.

"That's why you're the only one I told."

"You didn't tell me anything. Buster commented.

"I told you more than everyone else." I replied before leaving to go find Ash before she had to leave with Johnny.

Buster's POV

After Miles left to go meet Ash, I went up to Heather's office to ask her out. I had everything planned out with Disney. When I made all of the arrangements for the scavenger hunt, I talked to them about this dinner and was able to arrange to have a private dining area on the upper level of the restaurant. As I made my way up the stairs to her office, I felt a wave of anxiety wash over me. I took a deep breath as I reached her door and reached up to open it, but before I could Heather did. She smiled when she saw me in front of her.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to surprise you." She apologized, "I heard someone coming up the stairs, I thought I'd see who it was. You heading up to your office?"
"I was coming to see you actually." I told her, she tilted her head curiously, "Are you busy on the 4th?"

"Not that I know of." She responded, "Why?"

"Would you like to go out to dinner with me?" I asked her, feeling my heart start to race.

She nodded, "I'd like that."

I beamed, "Great, I'll pick you up at five?"

"Where?"

"I can pick you up here or at your apartment, it's your choice." I responded.

"My apartment would be preferable."

"Done." I agreed, kissing her cheek, "I'll see you later."

I headed off to go find Mike and talk to him about possibly borrowing his car for the night.

Heather's POV

I shook my head watching Buster go, he was always in such a hurry. I went back inside to continue talking to Stevie and Sasha, who were both working on the event at Lilac Terrance. We had finished discussing what left was needed for the event before Buster came up, now we were just talking.

"I see Buster finally asked you out." Sasha commented as I came back over, and then smiled, "Looks like Mike owes me his next paycheck."

"What happened to the no gambling rule you two had?" I asked in disbelief.

"It wasn't with each other." She responded, "We can make small bets with each other and betting against Mike isn't a gamble, it's an investment."

Stevie laughed at that.

"Soon you're going to find something else to gamble with other than money." I told Sasha.

"Oh, I've already thought about that and I'm going to give him that option tonight." She replied, "If he doesn't want to part with his paycheck, which is understandable, I've thought of something as equally rewarding."

"Food." I guessed.

She nodded, "He cooks dinner every night for the rest of the week. How'd you know?"

"You're pretty easy to guess." I told her, "It was either music, food, or sex."

"Music's always apart of dinner when Mike cooks and dinner usually leads to dancing, which leads to sex, so you wouldn't be too far off on any of them." Sasha responded, "He's got a playlist that he plays, which he always likes to sing along with every time he cooks, I always pull him away to dance when 'How Deep is the Ocean' starts to play."

"Geez, you'd think you two were rabbits with the way you go at it." Stevie spoke up.

"Mice are just as good as rabbits at the process of multiplication." Sasha smirked. Stevie's jaw dropped at Sasha's quip, while I laughed. She then changed the subject, "Now on a different matter, can I have the rest of the day off?"

"Sure, your costumes are in and you can tell Mike that has the day off too." I responded, not really seeing why they both need to be in today, "Just make sure you both are back here tomorrow night, so you guys can help set up Halloweentown. We'll need as much help as we can get to make sure it's all put together."

"Got it." Sasha responded before hopping down from the table, "We'll be there just a little after sunset." With that said, she left.

"You can go too, if you want Stevie." I told her, "There's nothing else that needs to be done here."

"Okay, I'll see you tomorrow night then." She smiled and left.

I sighed as I heard the phone ring, "Moon Theatre, Heather Greyson speaking, how can I help you?"

Layla's POV

"There's my favorite niece." Uncle Joey spoke up as I entered the room. I had spent the past several minutes looking for Johnny, only to find both him and Mr. Maddox with Uncle Joey.

"Aren't I you're only niece?" I asked, wondering why he couldn't have just said hello.

"I think so." Uncle Joey responded unsurely, "You never know with Nic."

"Demon DeMarco might have a spawn?" I riposted.

"He might." Uncle Joey shrugged, "He might have several children."

"They'd have to be older than me if that's possible." I responded starting to seriously think about it.

"It's hard to say." Uncle Joey said, and then quickly changed the subject, "Now, do you have that book I asked you about?"

"Yeah." I replied as I took the book, Outlander, out of my backpack and gave it to him, "But what you want with this one is beyond me, I think it's a straight up gratuitous romance."

"Everyone needs a little love in their lives." Uncle Joey smirked, and then headed out of the rehearsal room.

"So, why you all in here?" I asked curiously.

"We were working on some things for the scavenger hunt." Mr. Maddox responded.

"Cool." I smiled, and then asked, "Do you care if I borrow Johnny for a bit?"

"Go for it." Mr. Maddox shrugged.

I took Johnny's hand and pulled him out the door, leading him towards the stairs.

"Where are we going?" Johnny asked.

"To spend some time together before you have to leave." I answered simply. He looked at me curiously, but I merely smirked back, not explaining any further. He understood where I was going though.

"We only have a couple of hours." He reminded.

"I think that's enough time." I replied, "If not, we can always finish when you come back."

Buster's POV

By the end of day, it was just Eddie, Sean, and I. Heather had been in her office and was about to leave for the day. Mike and Sasha had left to go home hours ago. Miles went to meet Ash. Peter had been finishing the last updates to our new security system. Johnny and Layla were doing whatever it is they do when they aren't working. Joey had a new book that he wasn't going to be pulled away from anytime soon. Stevie, who could have gone home, chose to stay behind and teach Meena how to make and decorate caramel apples. Stevie and Meena were taking care of all of the concessions for the Halloweentown event. They were making and packaging homemade candies and drinks to give out. Tonight was their test run for Halloween. Sean, Eddie, and I were heading out to pick up dinner before we had to leave to work on our areas of the scavenger hunt.

"You guys think we should invite Heather to come with us?" Eddie asked, "I've been feeling kind of bad. With everything going on, we completely forgot her birthday last Sunday."

"I didn't." Sean responded, "I wished her a happy birthday and spent the evening with her. I got us food and we spent half the night on the phone with Disney working out arrangements for the scavenger hunt and all of the tickets needed for Mickey's Halloween Party. We had reached our cap for sales for the scavenger hunt, so Heather was able to call Disney back with all of the arrangements needed."

"I didn't know it was." I responded guiltily.

"That's because she didn't say anything." Sean shrugged.

"She's always been pretty quiet about her birthday." Eddie remarked.

"You know if you went and asked her out to dinner now, I doubt she'd turn you down." Sean tipped, "Maybe go see a movie afterward. Bell, Book, and Candle is playing at the Vista at seven, it's one of her favorites. We can handle everything with the scavenger hunt, we'll have Ash, Johnny, and Miles."

I quickly thanked him and ran up to Heather's office to try to catch her before she left for the night. I had to do something for her, they could go without me on this project for one night. Johnny, Miles and Ash had everything handled.

"Hi Buster." Heather greeted when I came into her office, "Did you forget something?"

"Yeah I did." I responded, "With everything going on, I forgot to ask you if you wanted to see Bell, Book, and Candle with me tonight. I was planning to ask you for your birthday, but things kept getting in the way. Would you like to go?"

Her eyes lit up at the mention of the film, it had been like the expression I had seen when I took her to see Gypsy. A radiant smile graced her lovely face.

"Maybe we could make dinner afterward and go over the final details for Halloweentown?" She suggested.

"I'm going to take that as a yes." I responded, "Are you ready to go now?"

"Uh yeah, I just have to put these files away."

"Are you going to need them tomorrow?" I asked her, she nodded, "Then leave them out, it'll save you time in the morning."

She looked at me and then looked down at the stack of folders on her desk, considering my suggestion. She then walked over to the filing cabinet, opened the bottom drawer, pulled out a couple of folders, and then closed the drawer. She placed the file with her others on her desk, and then turned to me and said, "Okay, I'm ready."

I swiftly lifted her blazer off the off of her chair, handed it to her, and we headed out the door.

Ash's POV

Miles and I arrived in Disneyland a half an hour after we were supposed to. We were lucky weren't meeting with the representative until seven. We had a solid hour and a half before we had to meet up with the lady. We had planned to meet up and have dinner before we met up with her, but we only have enough time now to pick up a snack, meet up with Johnny at 6:45, and then go back to the front of the park to meet with her.

"Where were you earlier?" I asked curiously, I didn't mind that he had been late, we overshot the arrival time, so it wasn't like we were late.

"I had something I had to take care of." He responded vaguely, "I've been working on something for myself, something I've been wanting to do for a long time. I lost track of time."

"Do you want to talk about it?"

He shook his head, "I want to see what comes out of it first." He then changed the subject, "You wanna go find a cart to get a couple of pretzels?"

"Maybe we could stop New Orleans Square and get a couple of mint juleps?"

"Yeah." Miles nodded, "You know, I have the recipe to make those."

"Really?" I asked impressed.

"Yeah, I found it online." He responded, "I'll have to make them next time you come over for dinner."

"So Saturday?"

Miles shrugged, "As long as I have everything, I have to double check the recipe. I mean it would go with what I had planned."

"Geez, have you ever thought of going to culinary school?" I asked him, he immediately looked down. "That's the thing isn't it?"

"I've been looking into it." Miles responded, "Toured a couple of schools this week and submitted some applications."

"That's great!"

"Uh yeah." He responded, not quite as enthusiastically, "So far I'm liking one in San Diego the best."

"That's almost three hours away."

"I know." He replied, "If I went, I'd probably come back and visit on the weekends. We would skype during the week, I'm not really sure what else we could do unless you want to come."

"When would you leave?"

"Right after Christmas." He answered, "I'd get settled down there before I started classes, find a job that fits with my class schedule." He then changed the subject back to food, "Let's go get some food, we talk more about this later. There's no rush to figure this out now."

Meena's POV

"How did you get into all of this?" I asked making conversation as Stevie and I decorated the apples. I hadn't gotten much of a chance to really get to know Stevie since she was hired. Sure, I had talked to her, but it had been professionally.

"Probably in a similar way that you did." Stevie responded. I looked down at her, not really sure what she meant, "My mom loved to bake and I used to help her when I was a kit. It was one of the only things I was ever really good at other than art, I was never very good in school. Spent more time drawing than listening to what the teachers had to say. Usually, I finished the school year with a notebook full of sketches than notes."

"You mentioned you went to college for art."

She nodded, "I majored in studio art with a concentration in illustration." She specified, before going through the instructions for the next part of the decorating process. As the time went on, I continued to ask her questions about school and art and the places she's worked. As she get more comfortable, she started to tell stories about the different odd jobs she had had over the years she had done everything in the food business from catering and working in a food truck to designing exquisite wedding cakes.

"Look, it's not gonna take that much time." We heard a muffled voice from the other side of the door, judging by the accent it was either Sean or Mike. "I just have to put back that smoke alarm I switched the batteries out of this morning and we should be good to go. We're running too early anyway."

It had definitely been Sean. He was always pulling apart things that worked and trying to find new ways for them to work. He kind of reminded me of the guy from the show Home Improvement. How Stevie put up with him always in here trying to fix things was slightly hard to understand.

As Sean walked through the door, Stevie flashed a smile at him, "Did you forget something, Mr. Gunn?"

He stared at her for a moment gaping, unsure of what to say to her. When he recovered, he sputtered out, "I, uh, have to put back the, um, smoke uh-alarm."

"It's on the counter near the fridge." Stevie told him, "I've been meaning to talk to you, Mr. Gunn, one of the lights hasn't been working properly. Would I also you, Mr. Maddox, or Mr. DeMarco to take a look at it?"

"Well, uh, Joey's, um, not too good with fixing the electrics like me and Pete, he's the uh-type you'd want helpin' with your sets and stuff. He's a smart guy, not too much of a handyman." Sean replied, picking up the smoke alarm from the counter, "Um, Pete's good at that stuff, but he, uh, wouldn't be able to help until next week. I can take a look at it in the morning."

"You're not too busy?"

"Free all morning."

"Thank you, Mr. Gunn." Stevie responded, keeping the formal wording and tone. She then looked up at me, "I'll be right back, I'm gonna go get the last of plans for the decorations so I can use them to figure out what else I want to do with the food."