─── ∙ ~εïз~ ∙ ───

"i'll see you tonight?" daniel asked through the unrolled window as tilly slung her backpack over her shoulder. she nodded, "yeah. love you."

"love you too." daniel replied, blowing her a kiss before driving out of the car park. tilly turned around and saw to see all but one of her friends in ghostbusters costumes. they were wearing the entire outfit, and even had the gear attached to their back. a grin danced on tilly's lips as she practically skipped towards them.

"why is no one else wearing costumes?" dustin investigated, his face slowly falling. he was initially sceptical when slater showed up with no costume, but now he was realising that everyone was wearing their normal clothes.

"wow." tilly grinned once she was close enough. dustin let out a heavy sigh when he saw her in her favourite pair of mom jeans and a thick blue sweater. she wasn't wearing a costume either. "you four look... charming." she teased.

"i have to agree." slater smirked, earning a hard glare from mike. 

the bell rang loudly and the boys were almost immediately receiving judgmental looks from everyone. "shall we?" tilly grinned as she slightly pushed lucas and will towards the double doors. the six stepped into the school together, gaining glances and laughter from everyone. the four felt embarrassed, but slater and tilly were enjoying every second of it.

"oh, my god!" one snorted as they passed by. dustin cringed. "when do people make these decisions?" he sighed.

"everyone dressed up last year." will reminded them all. except will was wrong about that. not everyone dressed up. "it's a conspiracy, i'm telling you." dustin explained.

"just be cool." mike instructed. "did you two know?" lucas pointed to the, duo who were wearing their everyday clothes.

"know that no one was dressing up? no." slater confessed. "my mom isn't done putting the finishing touches on my costume, and i wanted to save it for tonight."

"well, of course i knew— i was the only person that didn't wear a costume last year. guess i started a trend." she explained as they all stared at her blankly. "a headsup wouldve been appreciated, tilda." dustin informed her.

"but it's just that you guys look so adorable." tilly grinned as she tauntingly squished lucas' cheeks. "i didn't want to ruin you guys' fun."

"stop." lucas swatted her hand away, his face heating with embarrassment as she teased him. as she shrugged and turned away, lucas blinked. why was her teasing making him nervous. all those years she had spent taunting them made him annoyed, not flustered.

"who you gonna call? the nerds!"

"watch it." slater warned the person passing before he, dustin, mike and will turned the other way to head to their lockers. to tilly's surprise, lucas lingered back with her. she gave him a look and walked forward, assuming he had zoned out or something. but lucas followed after her. "your lockers on the other side, loser." tilly told him.

lucas glanced over his shoulders to see his friends were still walking off. "yeah, yeah. i know. i just wanted to ask... what are you doing tonight?" he questioned. tilly stopped in her tracks and finally turned to face him. "did you hit yourself over the head with that space pack? we're going trick or treating." she reminded him.

the boy nodded. "yeah, i know. i know. i meant, like after that." he clarified, trying to sound as cool as possible. tilly thought for a moment, her lips pursing. "i was just gonna stuff my face with candy and watch some scary films. why? you wanna join?" she offered.

lucas's face genuinely lit up at her words. "heck yeah! that sounds awesome." he nodded. tilly gave him two thumbs up and began walking forward. "you like milk duds with your popcorn, right?" she called out to him.

"love them!"

"got it."

─── ∙ ~εïз~ ∙ ───

after first period, slater, dustin and lucas dragged tilly to talk to max as she was the most fearless. "what am i getting out of this?" tilly challenged squirming out of slater's grip around her wrist. "a lifetime supply of niceness?" dustin suggested. tilly gave him the filthiest look. "what? no." she disagreed.

"we'll stop calling you proud princess." slater offered. tilly couldn't help but smile, that was an offer she couldn't refuse. "deal." she grinned.

when max unlocked her locker, dustin cleared his throat to get her attention. "oh, hi matilda." she smiled. tilly didn't even have the opportunity to respond, as she was just there as bait. dustin pulled her behind him, earning a light scoff. "um... hi, max." dustin greeted although she wasn't even talking to him, "i'm dustin, and these two are—"

"lucas and slater." lucas interrupted him, pointing to their respective selves. max nodded. "yeah, i know. the stalkers."

"what?" slater coughed in surprise. "no, it uh... wasn't like that."

"he's right, we weren't stalking you." lucas continued. dustin nodded in agreement, and tilly could've believe they were blatantly lying. "no, we were just concerned because, you know, you're new and all." dustin explained.

"yeah, for your safety." slater added.

"mmm-hmm." dustin spoke, "there are a lot of bullies here."

"so many bullies."

"it's crazy."

"i'm one of them."

"yeah... she was."

"is that why you two are wearing proton packs?" max asked, she turned to tilly to see her reaction. tilly tried to hide her smile, not wanting to admit that this girl was even the slightest bit funny. "it's an important part of their costume." she explained.

"well, these don't function." dustin stumbled with his attached box, "but... i do have this handy-dandy little trap here. and look, it even opens and closes. look, look, look... voilà! it's cool, right?"

"dustin." slater muttered, noticing the painfully uninterested look on max's face. "no? okay. " dustin sighed, "but, um... so, we were talking last night-"

"what?" tilly asked, "no we weren't."

"yeah, well not you but us three." dustin told her gesturing to them. "and you're new here, so you probably don't have any friends to take you trick-or-treating, and you're scared of bullies, so we were thinking that it would be okay if you come with us."

max scoffed at his choice of words. "it'd be okay?" she echoed. dustin nodded, not seeing the problem. "yeah. our party's a democracy, the majority voted you could come." he stated.

"didn't realize it was such an honour to go trick-or-treating with you." max rolled her eyes.

"we know where to get the full-sized candy bars." dustin continued, "we figured you'd want in."

"that's presumptuous of you." max smiled. "oh God." tilly muttered as she hid her face into slater's shoulder.

"totally." dustin grinned, as oblivious as ever. "uh, so, um... you'll come?" max rolled her eyes again at his question, slammed her locker shut and walked away. "we're meeting at the maple street cul-de-sac at seven." dustin called, "that's seven on the dot!"

"i think that went well." slater grinned, resting his hands on his hips. "presumptuous." dustin repeated, "that's a good thing, right?"

lucas sighed, walking away from his friends. tilly couldn't help but snicker at him, at least one of them had some sort of common sense. "lucas, is it bad?" dustin asked, rushing after him. "lucas? son of a bitch, lucas. is it bad?"

"wait mj, what does it mean?" slater asked her. tilly groaned at the question. "i thought you were smarter than this. open a dictionary, goodbye slater."

"see ya loser." slater waved as she stepped away from him and to her second period class, coincidentally english language.

─── ∙ ~εïз~ ∙ ───

"really, everyone dressed up last year." dustin reminded them, stil going on about how embarrassing it was walking into school. since tilly's dad wouldn't be able to pick her up from school, she decided to skate alongside her friends.

"it's not that big of a deal." slater sighed. lucas glanced over to him. "you're only saying that because you didn't dress up." he complained.

dustin turned around and noticed a vehicle revving towards them, "hey, guys?" he questioned. everyone glanced back to see what the problem was, and saw a blue camaro speeding towards them. slater's eyes grew wide and he immediately began to bike faster. "go, go, go, go!" he yelled.

"mike, you need to haul ass!"

"shit! mj go!"

"you guys, there is no way you can out-bike this car!" tilly called out to them, thinking of alternative ideas. "what should we do then?" slater yelled back at her. tilly skated to the grassy part of the path and leapt off her board.

"tilly!"

she threw her arm out without thinking. the camaro screeched, swerved hard, and barely missed them as it shot onto the other road. as the four deviated, dustin fell off bis bike. "shit!"

"woah."

the blue camero drove off, and the person in the passenger's seat turned around to look at them. they only saw a glimpse of flaming red hair, but that was all they needed to identify her. "holy shit!" dustin picked himself up, "was that—"

"mad max." lucas interjected, a hint of fear evident in his tone. "are you guys, idiots?" tilly stormed towards them as she wiped her nose, "a car is faster than a bike!"

mike panted, "yeah, thanks for the heads up."

"freaking fools." tilly groaned, grabbing her board from the ground and skating ahead of them.

"wait up!"

⎯ ❃ jania speaks!

thank you for 300 reads! i didn't think anyone would even read this book ♡

^^ omg bless me what a humble cutie i was august 17th 2020!!
what are everyone's thoughts on the finaleee?? it made me realise that i need to kill off some characters 🩷