Nelson rapped on the top of my plaster skul .
‘Knock, knock, who’s there?’
‘It’s me—Sky.’
‘It’s me, Sky who?’
‘Shut up, Nelson.’
He laughed. ‘You look great. Where did you get the suit? Did you hire it?’
I took off the mask. ‘No, Simon made it.’
‘Awesome.’
‘He and Sal y are sitting at home in similar outfits.’
He playful y began dragging me in the direction of my house. ‘No way? We’l have to go up there.’
I jabbed him in the ribs. ‘If you suggest that to the others, I wil personal y pul your dead brain out of your ears and feed it to your fel ow zombies.’
‘Ouch! Good visual threat—I like it.’
I was feeling a bit cold in my costume. ‘Can we get moving, Tina?’
‘Yeah, let’s.’
Tina handed round pumpkin-shaped lanterns on the end of poles and we processed through the streets enjoying the show. Little children paraded past with their parents, dressed in a bizarre selection of costumes. The spooky theme seemed to have got diluted somewhere along the way because it was perfectly acceptable to wear your favourite princess costume if you were a kindergarten girl, or come dressed as Spider-Man if you were a boy. The emphasis was definitely on
‘treat’ rather than ‘trick’. I saw a couple of older kids fighting each other with water pistols, but most were too busy racking up a sugar high to cause any damage to houses where they got no answer.
As we neared Tina’s house, a werewolf emerged from the mist to join our group, complete with ful face mask sprouting hair from ears, and a pair of shaggy paws. On any other night, this would be a cause for alarm; on Hal owe’en no one batted an eyelid.
The werewolf slipped through the crowd and sidled up to me. Bending down, he growled in my ear.
‘Zed?’ I yelped.
‘Ssh. I don’t want people to know I’m here. And don’t, you know, think to me, in case someone’s listening.’
I started to giggle, absurdly glad that he had sneaked out to see me. ‘Ah, Wolfman, you are a master of disguise, fooling the bad guys with your cunning.’
‘I blend, don’t I? I knew you’d be out after dark, so here I am.’
I real y didn’t need a reminder of the real horror haunting us on this night of pretend terrors, but I did feel happier now he was beside me.
A shaggy paw insinuated itself around my waist.
‘I’m not sure I approve of this costume of yours.
Couldn’t you put a cloak on or something?’
‘I feel real y cold. Simon didn’t think of this when he made it for me.’
He shrugged out of his coat and slipped it over my shoulders. ‘Your dad made this? Are we talking about the same guy who wants to lock you away until you’re thirty? Has he had a personality change since I last saw him?’
‘It’s artistic. He wasn’t thinking about how his daughter looks—just getting the right shape. He and Sal y are at home in identical outfits.’
He chuckled softly.
‘So, did you tel your parents you were going out?’
I asked.
‘No, they stil think we need to circle the wagons back home. I’m tinkering with the bike in the garage.
Xav’s covering for me.’
‘How are they going to react?’
He frowned. ‘I can’t see—it’s hard with family.
There are so many possibilities in a house of savants that I think the future gets fuzzy, like interference on a cel phone. And it’s weird: I’ve noticed that the closer I get to you, the less I see about you.’
‘Does that mean I could beat you at cards now?’
‘Probably. But I might not be able to help you out with your goal-keeping either, so there’s a drawback.’
‘That’s fine by me. It’s not nice knowing you see so much al the time. Makes me feel, I dunno, caged by the future.’
‘Yeah, I prefer it this way. It feels more normal.’
We reached Tina’s house. She’d real y gone to town: carved pumpkins grinned in every window and the porch was festooned with spiders, bats, and snakes. Her mum opened the door dressed as a witch, with massive false eyelashes and crimson nails. I could see Tina’s older brothers out the back, forking garden trimmings on to a bonfire.
‘Let’s go in and stay for a while, then slip away,’
suggested Zed. ‘I real y want to be alone with you for an hour or so. It’s kil ing me having to steal al these moments at school, always worrying someone’s going to walk in on us.’
‘OK, but I can’t bail out too early.’
‘I’l keep away from you in there. If anyone recognizes me beneath the costume, they won’t think anything of it. Tina did invite me.’
The party gathered in the kitchen. Tina’s mum had a huge cauldron ful of popcorn for us to eat and green jel y which we had to feed each other blindfold.
Not possible when wearing a skul mask so I took this off and joined in. Zed hung back, keeping his werewolf gear on.
I drew Nelson as my jel y feeder with Tina shouting instructions. Inevitably he got more on me than in my mouth.
‘Yuck. I’m going to need a shower now!’ I squawked as the spoon hit my neck and jel y fel on my chest.
‘Apple bobbing!’ suggested Tina. ‘That should help.’
I proved useless at getting my apple. Zoe was the best.
‘It’s her big mouth,’ explained Tina, ducking as Zoe flicked water at her.
I had to be home at midnight, so if I wanted to spend some time with Zed, I needed to make my excuses at ten thirty.
‘You OK getting back?’ Tina asked, shuffling the songs on the iPod to start the dancing.
‘Yes, I’ve got a lift arranged.’
‘OK. See you tomorrow.’
‘Thanks for the party. It was bril iant.’
She laughed. ‘I love it when you speak Brit, Sky. It was brilliant,’ she mimicked. Cackling with laughter, she swooped on Nelson and hauled him into the middle of the kitchen to dance.
I emerged on to the porch to find Zed waiting for me.
‘Ready?’ he asked.
‘Uh-huh. Where are we going?’
‘Let’s head up to your place. There’s a coffee bar on Main Street that should be open.’
‘Is that safe?’
‘Should be. We’l go to one of the booths at the back. As much as I appreciate the value of blending, I don’t want to sit with this mask on al night.’
I held out the skul . ‘Should I put this back on? I feel real y stupid wearing it.’
‘You might want to think that people can see who’s wearing the skeleton suit if you don’t.’
‘Good point.’ I put it back on then couldn’t help laughing at us. ‘This is our second date, right?’
‘See, I told you I’d come up with something better.’
He laced his fingers in mine: hairy claws to skele-bones.
The coffee bar was busy with parents taking a warming break after traipsing round after their hyper kids al evening. We had to wait for the back booth to come free.
‘What’l you have?’ Zed asked.
‘Hot chocolate with al the trimmings.’
He carried over a tal glass brimming with cream and marshmal ows, a chocolate stirring stick on the side. He’d chosen black coffee for himself.
‘You don’t know what you’re missing.’ I sighed with ecstasy as I took a hit of gooey marshmal ow mixed with chocolate syrup.
‘I think I’m probably getting as much pleasure watching you.’ He sipped his coffee. ‘I know it’s a cheap date—sorry about that.’
‘Yeah, you know me: I’m sitting here calculating how much you spent. Next time I’m expecting caviar at a five star restaurant.’
‘I can stretch to a burger at the diner if you’re hungry.’
I tugged a paw off. ‘Don’t be daft. My treat next time. Let’s keep this equal.’
He stroked the back of my hand, sending a host of tingles dancing down my spine. ‘I don’t mind splitting the bil , but I kinda prefer buying for my date. I don’t think I’d like it if you paid for me.’