T H I R D   P E R S O N

Halloween...the time of the year where ghosts and evil spirits are free to roam without suspicion. Occult groups chose the day to gather and plan the doom of some unlucky kid and probably murder the whole town...at least that was what the senile old man on Benzai's street thought.

The streets were decorated with orange and pumpkins except one house that had white, green and red streamers hanging around every corner.

"Mum, it's not Christmas!" Crystal yelled desperately to her mother who was having none of it.

"Nonsense! Halloween rules says to wear any costume of your choice!" The older white haired woman argued and to buttress her point, she removed a red and white woolly Mrs Claus costume from her shopping bag. When she asked for a Christmas costume at the mall, you should've seen the looks she got in return.

Crystal gave up hope and went to her room in frustration. She pulled out her purple covered iPhone and dialed her boyfriend's number. The unbelievably handsome boy picked up in a matter of seconds.

"Kishi!" Crystal whined.

"Sounds like Mrs Carissa did something again." Kishi said knowingly.

"She's decorating the house with a tree, mistletoes and green and red! She even bought a Christmas costume!" Crystal complained.

Kishi laughed at the other end of the phone. "Hey, do you want to go shopping for Milan's costume party?" He asked. Milan, a classmate, was hosting a party and she had invited everyone.

"Sure. I wanna win the realest costume prize!" Crystal squealed. "We would wear matching clothes!"

Kishi chuckled. "Alright Snow, I'll be there in five." And with that, he cut the call.

Kishi wore his favorite green hoodie on carton coloured jeans before picking his phone, wallet and keys. "Lloyd, I'm heading out!" He yelled into Lloyd's room.

"Where to?" The brunet asked.

"Shopping with Crystal for Milan's party. Wanna come?" Kishi asked but the blue and green eyed boy shook his head, not wanting to be a third wheel. And besides, he wanted his costume to be secret. He was damn planning to win that realest costume prize. "I'm off then." Kishi said before heading out.

Once Lloyd determined that Kishi and Ite were far away, he wore a blue hoodie and a hat and his contacts before picking his wallet and transport card and headed out. He locked the door behind and walked to the bus stop.

Lloyd made sure he was not seen before entering the make up section of the mall and almost had a heart attack when he saw Benzai there. The two shared a short moment before the redhead spun on her heels and disappeared down the aisle.

Once she was safe, she decided to buy her eyeliner later and went to buy her costume instead. Benzai still couldn't believe that she somehow fell in love. Love!

Lloyd shrugged, bought his make up and went to the salon for a make over, which was the reason he had a hat on. Instead of an annoying wig, it was better to style and dye his hair. The only problem was keeping it hidden from the gang and Kishi. After his make over, he went home just in time for the delivery to arrive. His costume would win that prize.

Crystal and Kishi searched for costumes they would like but found none. "Let's do beauty and the beast!" Crystal begged but Kishi shook his head.

"Yellow is an obnoxious colour." He refused.

"Mulan and Sheng!"

"I don't look the part."

"Princess and the frog?"

"As much as I like green, no."

"Wait!" Crystal squealed and removed a costume from the rack. Kishi went rigid immediately and shook his head vehemently.

"There is NO way I am wearing THAT!" He screamed.

"Bbbuuuttt..." Crystal started.

"No."

"Pwease?" She cooed.

"No. Never! Never! Never!"

Kishi felt like committing suicide by jumping off a two feet tall contraption, or drowning himself in a basin of water. In the end, he had given in to his girlfriend's puppy eyes and cute pout. His friends would never let him live it down. Not with the costume Crystal chose.

Watching the couple arguing back and forth, were best friends by the name Bruno and Doug. After the lovers had left with a sullen Kishi and a very giddy Crystal, the two began to ponder on their costumes as well.

Bruno and Doug always wore the same costume, or matching ones and this year would not prove different. "So...Batman and Robin?" Doug asked, eliciting a glare from his counterpart.

"What are we? Twelve?!" Bruno hissed. Doug shrugged. Bruno wanted to be Vermilion but his best bud had refused it to the last. He was about to settle for Harry Potter and Ron Wesley when his idiotic best friend broke into a goofy grin. "No." Bruno refused before even seeing the costume the jock had chosen.

"Come on, it'll be fun!" Doug tried to persuade his friend but the ebony haired teen was having none of it. Doug frowned a bit before a creepy smile crawled its way to his face. Bruno knew and dreaded that look.

"What are you planning? I am not buying this costume no matter what!" Bruno declared.

"But darling, it would suit us both!" Doug whined. Loudly. Loud enough for people to hear and misunderstand.

"What is your problem?!" Bruno hissed harshly and tried to hide his face.

"But I want to see your sexy body while you move up and down in that grace like motion. Aaah! The feeling..."

Bruno's ears turned red with anger and embarrassment as people were clearly having wrong ideas. He kicked Doug and snarled. "Stop saying stuff like that!"

"I was only describing how well you dance. With your concert with Vermilion, you would be really popular!" Doug flashed an innocent smile despite smirking in triumph on the inside. He retrieved the horrendous costumes and checked to see if they would fit before paying for them and leaving with an angry Bruno following behind him.

Josh and Stella had a nice time picking out costumes. No qualms, no fights and no embarrassing costumes. Arielle and Galen also had no trouble with their costumes. Phoebe, like Benzai and Lloyd, shopped alone in hopes to win that realest costume prize. She had to.

-

It was finally Halloween night. The streets were lit up with Jack o'lanterns and glowing skeletons and children ran around trick or treating or pulling pranks.

Lloyd was to hitch a ride with Kishi but the dark skinned boy didn't want to leave his room. Lloyd knocked on his door for the seventh time that evening. "Come on Ki! We would be late!" He yelled.

"No. My costume is horrible!" Kishi yelled from the other side like a whiny child.

"How bad can it be?! You look good in anything! You could stick a leaf on your privates and walk butt naked down the street and still look sane! And that is coming from ME!" Lloyd yelled and there was a moment of silence before Kishi spoke.

"You're jealous, aren't you?"

Lloyd rolled his eyes. "Come outside!"

"Okay, okay! Shesh!"

The door slowly opened and revealed a fat figure standing in the doorway. Lloyd stifled a laugh. There his brother stood in a white rabbit onesie, looking like a kid in a bad Halloween costume. The irony. The costume was stuffed with paddings so that he looked fat and he wore a waistcoat and held a stick and wore a monocle.

"White rabbit!" Lloyd mocked. "I'm late! I'm late! No time to say goodbye, hello! I'm late! I'm late! I'm late! Come on do it!"

"I'll kill you." Kishi growled and Lloyd went into a laughing fit.

The laughing boy was sporting red and white hair with blue and grey mismatched eyes. The right part of his face, where half his hair was dyed red, was covered with a scar make up and the remaining half of his hair was dyed white.

"Todoroki Shoto from BNHA." Kishi boredly announced the name of Lloyd's character.

"Yup." Lloyd smiled and the duo went downstairs. Their parents were zombies for the night and were handing the kids that rang the ghost cry doorbell candy.

"Follow the white rabbit! Follow the white rabbit!" The kids squealed in delight when they caught sight of Kishi and his costume and ran after him when he started to sprint away playfully.

"Mary Ann! Mary Ann save me!" Kishi cried out when the kids 'caught up' to him. Lloyd, being Mary Ann, took some more candy from the snack basket.

"Who wants more candy?" He asked.

"Me! Me! Me!" The children left Kishi, who had trouble standing up because of his fat costume, and ran to Lloyd.

The bichrome boy raised the snacks out of their reach and teased them a bit before finally handing them over. The kids took the candy and went to pulverize another poor doorbell.

"Come on Mr Rabbit, Alice would be mad." Lloyd helped Kishi up and they bid their parents farewell before driving to Crystal's house to pick her up. Lloyd became a victim of Carissa's craziness and forced him into writing a contract to marry her other unconceived daughter. It took Mr Meyers to get Carissa out of Lloyd's skin.

"Why were they wearing Christmas costumes?!" Lloyd asked when they were finally free.

"Don't ask." Crystal said. As Lloyd had expected, she wore an Alice in the wonderland costume and Kishi was the matching white rabbit.

The party was already pumping by the time they arrived at the venue and they were among the late comers but there were no worries.

"White rabbit!" Stella called. Kishi grumbled to himself as the trio made their way over to the gang. Stella was Aphrodite and matching with her was Josh as Adonis. The couple looked stunning and hot as flames. "Hey Alice!" Stella hailed.

"Off with her head!" Arielle suddenly yelled. She was sporting the queen of hearts costume along with Galen who was the king. They laughed at the coincidence before settling down.

Phoebe wore a the Nun costume, which was really cool. Every other person had cool costumes other than Kishi, which made him annoyed but once he saw Bruno and Doug's costumes, he couldn't think of anything more ridiculous.

Both boys wore green swim caps to give them the bald effect and painted their skin green. They both wore turtle shells which had a fake twin katana for Doug and fake nun chunks for Bruno strapped to it. They wore bandanas over their eyes to give a bad expression of the TMNT. They even taped their fingers together so that it seemed like they had only three fingers. (Doug's idea.)

"Don't say a word." Bruno growled as he angrily gulped down some punch (after many attempts to hold the cup with 'three' fingers). Doug, on the other hand, was having the time of his life and ignoring the queer looks shot his way because of his silly costume.

Benzai came in late as always but her costume really screamed her personality. Thick black eyeliner surrounded her green eyes and a temporary kanji art lay above her left eye. She wore a red tunic and a grey vest on grey pants, and carried a huge gourd on her back. Her character was Sabaku no Gaara from Naruto.

"Never knew you were a weeb, Benzai." Kishi snorted. Benzai raised a brow (which she shaved) at Kishi's costume and snorted (in a Benzai way) at Doug and Bruno's costume. An the end, an unknown person won the realest costume price because he wore gold contacts and a black mask like Maru. It was rather unnerving for Lloyd.

"Damn, I wanted that cash prize!" Phoebe groaned.

"Never mind that, my concert is coming up real close guys..." Bruno started.

"Yeah yeah dancer boy, we won't miss it!" Phoebe interrupted and stood up from her chair. "I'm leaving guys. Don't call me." She announced and left even before they could say goodbye. Doug stood up without a word and followed her outside to where she was waiting for a taxi.

D O U G

"Phoebe!" I called and she turned around. The white paint on her face was already running because of sweat and her droopy eyes showed me that she was tired. It is funny to see Phoebe getting tired before Stella but it meant that something was bothering her.

"What?" She asked me tiredly and tried to flag another taxi down, which failed.

I gulped. "If you want, I could take you home..." I started but she interrupted my words.

"Didn't you come with Bruno? Look, I'm tired and stressed. I just want to get away from the smell of alcohol and sweat and ridiculous costumes. Go back to the party or go home." This time, she succeeded in getting a taxi and left me standing and looking dumb.

Am I that ridiculous?

"You're hopeless." I scowled at Bruno, who was leaning on a wall behind me. "Let's see, from ninth grade up till now you've been rejected by Phoebe seventy two times and still counting." He teased but I had nothing to comeback with, it was true.

"Leave me be, Bruno." I said tiredly but Bruno wasn't relenting.

"Why don't you just give up on her? I thought you liked that dark girl we met with Lisa at Humawod?" He asked and I shook my head.

"Am I really that ridiculous, Bruno?" I asked, voicing my inner fears.

"You're an idiot, you're dumb both intellectually and academically, you're a dork and your costume choice doesn't help matters." Bruno said bluntly. "However, underneath all that is a guy with a strong mind. Listen up cause I won't repeat this again. You're one of the strongest people I know. You never let what others think about you define you. You're free, jovial and fun to be with. That's why you're my best friend. If Phoebe or any girl for that matter don't like you for who you are, they can go screw themselves! And besides, Brenda has a disturbing crush on you, and that's speaking something!"

I chuckled at the mention of Bruno's sister. That girl crushes on every cool guy she sees and thinks every guy that looks at her is into her.

"If you really feel for Phoebe, you could use my concert as a date excuse and tell her how you feel." Bruno suggested.

"I don't know about that..."

"Come on! You've been rejected many times over already! It won't shorten the length of your dick to be rejected once more!"

"That's encouraging and disturbing at the same time."

Bruno smirked and we both went back to the party in our horrendous costumes, at least according to Bruno and Kishi it is. Said white rabbit has no right to insult my costume!

***

Hello, whoever takes the time to read these author's notes. I know it's not Halloween but it is in this story. Truth is, I've never celebrated Halloween before but hey, who wants my opinion?

Please vote and comment. Till next chapter.

-Star.