"What kind?" I asked.
"I want to dance with an angel."
For the second time that night I completely forgot about my sister. "I think I could arrange that."
A grin stretched across his face. "Good. After you find your friend let me know."
Oh yeah, Adrian.
I handed the money to Bo Peep. "Do we need our hands stamped or something?"
She picked up a stamp from the table and pounded orange pumpkins onto our wrists. "All right, go in." You could tell it hurt her to say the words. We'd only walked a few feet away when I heard her turn to Clark Kent and say, "You're such a sucker for a pretty face."
"Hey, helping damsels in distress is my job," he said.
We walked into the ballroom, and it took a few moments for my eyes to adjust to the dark. Rick stood on a platform, decked out as Dracula and grabbing his electric guitar with such force that it looked like he was trying to wind the thing up. One of his band-mates sat behind a set of drums, the other stood off to the side with a bass guitar.
Where was Adrian? She had to be close by; somewhere in the Rick adoration zone. I didn't walk through the dance floor, I couldn't maneuver around people with my wings, so we walked around the circumference of the room, looking. In the darkness, sports figures, monsters, genies, and more cats than you could count—probably because WSU's mascot is the cougar—all moved to the music. I spotted a witch, but it was just a freckle-faced coed who wore a pointy hat, not Adrian.
I saw one man without a costume and he looked so out of place that I stared at him for several seconds before I realized he was a security guard. He stood in the back of the room, arms folded and looking bored.
I made my way up to the front of the room. Samantha followed but we didn't talk. The music didn't allow for it.
I suppose it was too much to hope that Rick wouldn't notice me. After all, it's pretty hard to overlook a girl towing mammoth-sized wings on her back.
Between songs Rick went to the mike and said, "Hey, great costumes, everybody. I especially like yours, Chels, because what says Halloween better than a giant anemic butterfly?"
I ignored him and kept looking around for Adrian.
"Anybody got a jumbo-sized can of Raid?" he called.
Some people shouldn't be allowed access to microphones. Especially people who don't like me. A few people in the crowd stared at me and chuckled.
Rick leaned in closer to the mike and added, "Why aren't there ever any six-foot tarantulas around when you need them?"
This pretty much sums up my relationship with Rick. It's been this way since last year, when Rick and Samantha both ran for school president. He was a jerk during the campaign, and by the time the election was over, we hated each other. Which makes the fact that my little sister dates him that much more annoying.
I moved away from the front of the room. Adrian wouldn't be up by the stage anymore—not after Rick had drawn attention to me. Now that she knew I was here, she'd be hightailing it to somewhere less visible. Where? Deep in the crowd? The bathrooms, maybe?
Then I saw her. I recognized the hat, wig, and green makeup. She strolled toward the refreshment table in an unconcerned manner.
So maybe she hadn't been paying attention while Rick asked for volunteers with insecticide—either that, or she didn't care that I'd come after her. I quickened my step and followed after her.
"Adrian!"
She didn't turn around. She either didn't hear me because of the music or she ignored me. Probably the latter.
I gritted my teeth together and went faster. "Adrian!" I shouted.
Now she and several other people glanced over their shoulders at me. I have to admit, she'd done a good job with her makeup. Her putty nose curved down and her chin pointed up so that they almost met. Several warts grew on her face and she'd done something to her cheekbones so that they looked exaggerated. If I hadn't been with her when she bought the costume, I wouldn't have recognized her.
Without answering me, Adrian turned back around and went on.
"Don't you dare walk away from me," I said and pushed my pace. "You know you're not supposed to be here."
She glanced over her shoulder again, looked at me nervously, then walked faster.
Samantha trotted up to my side. "Do you want me to talk with her? Maybe if we call your mom and tell her we'll stay here and chaperone Adrian—"
"No," I said. "Adrian has to learn that she can't treat people this way. She can't just worry us, and make us run all over town looking for her, and pretend it doesn't matter." I turned away from Samantha and watched Adrian's retreating back. "Hey," I yelled again. "You had better turn around and come with me right now."
She glanced back at me again with wide eyes, but instead of stopping and waiting for me, she took off in a sprint.
Without a word I hiked up my dress and ran after her. "Don't think you can get away from me!" I yelled. I knew I could catch her. I've always been faster. True, I wore white ballet slippers which had roughly the same traction as cotton balls, but my determination gave me extra speed.
Adrian ran to the refreshment table, then made a sharp left. I followed. Okay, actually I bumped into the table, and as I turned to go after her, my wings knocked over a large stack of paper plates and several cookies. They fell to the ground and scattered in my wake as I hurried after Adrian.
I heard someone from behind the table yell, "Hey!" and I called out, "Sorry!" but didn't slow down. A few moments later I had gained on my sister again. Her black cape fluttered out behind her, almost within my grasp.
"You are so dead!" I called out.
"Leave me alone!" she called back. At least I think that's what she said, because Rick crescendoed into a loud part of the song just then and it muffled everything out.
She ran behind the platform that the band stood on. It was darker back here and a bunch of cables for the electrical equipment snaked from the platform to the wall. I slowed my pace so I didn't trip on them. Adrian didn't and managed to snag one of them with her foot. I know this because suddenly both the electric guitar and Rick's voice stopped booming across the room.
An overall improvement, really.
I didn't have time to stop and plug it back in. Adrian dashed out a side door and I turned and followed her into the hallway. Well, technically I slid into a bunch of people who stood by the doorway chatting, but after that I followed.
Stumbling out into the hallway, I struggled to regain my balance, then set out after Adrian again. As Adrian weaved in between groups of people, Samantha ran up beside me and called out to her, "We just need to talk to you!"
Adrian didn't slow down and I was losing patience and ground. My wings kept knocking into people, which jostled me back and forth in the hallway like a pinball. "Just grab her!" I told Samantha.
And so she did. She dashed forward to close the gap, and grabbed hold of her arm. Adrian tried to jerk away, which pulled Samantha into her. They fell to the ground in a heap.
Samantha's tiara rolled across the floor and Adrian's witch hat and wig flipped off.
And that's when I noticed the witch wasn't Adrian.
Adrian had dyed her hair maroon. This person was brunette.
Oops.
"I've got her," Samantha called to me, as she sat up.
The witch tried to pull away from Samantha again, and screamed, "Help! Get away from me!"